Madrid  - The shares of top Spanish banks plunged Monday following US investment bank Lehman Brothers announcing it would file for bankruptcy protection.

Stockholm - The Stockholm bourse dropped 3 per cent in opening trading on Monday in the wake of reports that US investment banker Lehman Brothers was to file for bankruptcy protection.

Shares in the four main banking groups including Nordea dropped some 5 per cent, although Swedish banking groups have said they have not been exposed to the troubled subprime US mortgage market.

Clothes retailer Hennes & Mauritz was also impacted negatively as was ball-bearing maker SKF and construction group JM, while the SAS Group share, operator of joint carrier Scandinavian Airlines, surged 15 per cent.

SAS on Friday confirmed it was in talks and "evaluating various structural possibilities."

Frankfurt  - The European Central Bank (ECB) said Monday it was watching money market conditions closely in the eurozone, following indications that US bank Lehman Brothers would declare itself bankrupt.

The ECB said from its headquarters in Frankfurt it was ready to contribute to orderly conditions in the euro money market.

The US Federal Reserve said Sunday it was taking measures to stabilize conditions on financial markets, including accepting a wider range of financial instruments as collateral.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with government of Mizoram with regard to Urban Co-operative Banks (UCB) in the State of Mizoram.

The source close to the bank remarked that the central bank would also be assessing the training, computerization needs of the Urban Co-operative Banks in the state of Mizoram with the objective of upgrading their human resources skills and technological infrastructure.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised the people not to fall in the traps of fly-by-night operators. These operators are offering fraudulent offers to the people through e-mails, posts and couriers. The all also engaged in providing fictitious offers of winnings in lottery and money in the stock market. The bank has received number of complaints from various organizations, schools, exchange entities and individuals.

The Reserve Bank of India announced to revise the outstation cheque collection charges. The cheque collection charges are likely to fall following the announcement of the apex bank. The charges on electronic remittances through the ‘Real Time Gross Settlement System’ and the ‘National Electronic Fund Transfer mechanisms’ are also likely to be slashed.