London  - The British government Thursday defended its renewed large-scale intervention to secure the survival of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which has announced record losses of 24.1 billion pounds (34.7 billion dollars).

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said by offering a massive asset insurance scheme of 325 billion pounds to RBS, the government "recognized the fact that banks need to clean up their balance sheets."

Zurich - The embattled Swiss banking giant UBS announced Thursday it appointed a new chief executive officer to replace Marcel Rohner, who resigned, at the top of the company.

"This represents a further step to restore stakeholder confidence and to pave the way back to success," UBS said in a statement.

The bank's board of directors said it appointed Oswald J. Grubel to the position of CEO with immediate effect. Grubel for decades worked at Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss bank behind UBS.

London - Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Thursday confirmed it had made record losses of 24.1 billion pounds (34.7 billion dollars) in 2008, believed to be the biggest in British corporate history.

RBS, which had to be bailed out by the government last year, also announced a major restructuring programme focussed on placing
325 billion pounds of so-called toxic assets into a scheme that offers insurance against any future losses.

Fra

Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) engaged in auto financing are hoping that banks requirement to meet priority-sector lending targets by March will give a much needed fillip to the auto financing business.

Typically, auto loans are converted into financial securities and sold to banks. This ensures that auto NBFCs do not carry the risk of default on their books. At the same time, since they get their money back immediately, they can go out in the market and lend again.

Zurich - The Swiss-based private bank EFG International said Wednesday its profit in 2008 dropped 33 per cent compared to the previous year. The bank's stock closed down about 35 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Pictet and Cie private bank based in Geneva said it would expand its wealth management business, in a move against the current of the global economic downturn.