Manila - The Philippines' agriculture department Saturday ordered a ban on the importation of pigs and pork products from Mexico and the United States amid an outbreak of swine flu virus in the two countries. The virus is suspected to have killed 68 people in Mexico over the past three weeks, while at least eight people have been infected in the US.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said he ordered the import ban as a "precautionary measure" despite no links so far between swine farms and the outbreak.

Washington  - As early as Friday, the US government is expected to announce the results of its "stress tests" for 19 major banks - a report that could force some banks to sell ownership stakes to the US government.

The examination has been underway since late February, when federal banking regulators said it could provide added capital to struggling large banks, according to the results of the "stress test."

Public sector lender Corporation Bank on Friday reported a 26.18% surge in its net profit at Rs 260.49 crore for the fourth quarter ender March 31.

The lender had a net profit of Rs 206.43 crore in the March quarter last financial year.

During the fourth quarter of FY’09, the total income of the bank grew to Rs 2,199.64 crore from Rs 1,464.74 crore in the same quarter previous year.

For the financial year ended March 31, Corporation Bank reported a net profit of Rs 892.76 crore, down 21.46 per cent over the year-ago period. The bank had a net profit of Rs 734.98 crore in FY'08.

State-run IDBI Bank on Friday has reported a 28.02 per cent growth in its net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009. The lender’s net profit rose to Rs 3.13 crore, against Rs 2.45 crore in the March quarter of FY'08.

While, lender’s total income surged 41% to Rs 37.34 crore for January-March 2008 from Rs 26.47 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

During the quarter, IDBI's interest income jumped 45 per cent to Rs 32.62 crore, while interest expenditure stood at Rs 27.80 crore, up 38 per cent over the same period last fiscal.

Standard Chartered Bank plans to raise at least $1 billion through an Indian Depository Receipts (IDR) issue in the local markets.

According to latest reports, the lender has already appointed JM Financial and UBS AG as lead managers for what could be the first IDR issue by a global player.

Apart from this, the bank has also appointed Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Kotak Mahindra to manage the issue.

According to a report released by rating agency Crisil, a nearly three-fold increase in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banks is projected by the year 2011 - the figures are likely to go up from the last year's 2.3 percent of advances to 5 per cent of advances by 2011.

Speaking in absolute terms, the gross NPAs would from last year level of Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 1.9 lakh crore.

The report says increased gross NPAs would result from increasing defaults in payments by companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because of their puny risk profile and severe strain on operating margins.