Country's largest automobile company Tata Motors on Tuesday informed that it has entered into a tie-up with the Union Bank of India (UBI) for financing its range of passenger vehicles.

Under the arrangement, the lender will offer car loans up to 85 per cent of invoice, for tenure ranging up to five years, at a rate of 11-11.25 per cent.

The loan facility will be available at all branches of Union Bank of India and 329 sales touch-points of Tata Motors, company stated in a release.

Brussels - Shares in fallen Belgian banking giant Fortis surged by over 40 per cent on Monday morning as investors gave an enthusiastic welcome to a sell-off deal agreed with French bank BNP Paribas over the weekend.

As markets opened, Fortis shares jumped up to 1.42 euros (1.80 dollars), 42.6 per cent above the close on Friday. They fell back during early trading to 1.20 euros, 25 per cent above Friday's close.

Stockholm  - Swedish banking group Swedbank Monday said it was to withhold its planned dividend for 2008, citing "a continued deterioration of macroeconomic conditions" in several markets including the neighbouring Baltics.

A month ago, the bank's board had proposed a dividend of 2.9 billion kronor (315 million dollars) for the financial year 2008. The dividend was to be halved to 4.50 kronor per share.

New York  - Business partners of the insurance giant AIG have, since the firm was bailed out by the US government in September 2008, received some 50 billion dollars in payments, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Beneficiaries of bail-out funds from the firm number some two dozen, including the Goldman Sachs group and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, the paper said.

Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank each received some 6 billion dollars in payments between September and December 2008, to cover exposures they had at the failing insurer.

Bern  - The Swiss Federal Council rejected criticism Friday which had been directed at the Alpine nation over tax issues, saying that privacy in banking remained intact.

In a statement, the council, the executive branch of government, said it would, however, work "to improve cooperation with other countries in the area of tax offences."

The Council added that "it is prepared to enter into dialogue with third countries on the taxation of savings income." To do so, it set up a "group of experts," which includes civil servants, bankers and academics, to advise the government.