London  - Britain's part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) could make around 20,000 redundancies as it aims to focus on its core business, according to media reports on Sunday.

New chief executive Stephen Hester is set to announce a cull of around 10 per cent of the bank's global workforce, as he forces the troubled bank to focus on its core activities, several British newspapers reported at the weekend.

The bank could also sell off its divisions in Australia and Asia, as it unveils its annual results on Thursday.

Washington  - The Silver Falls Bank in the western US state of Oregon became the 14th US bank to be seized so far this year, part of an escalating pattern of bank failures amidst the worst financial turmoil in more than 70 years.

Oregon state regulators seized the bank, which had 116.3 million dollars in deposits, or liabilities, and 131.4 million dollars in assets, usually in the form of outstanding loans to businesses and consumers.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named as the receiver. The FDIC said Friday that another local bank, Citizens Bank of Corvallis, Oregon, would take over the deposits and hang its shingle on the Silver Falls branches by Monday.

For all of 2008, the FDIC shut down 25 banks.

The competitors have yet again been surprised by the State Bank of India (SBI), which earlier created hype in the home loan market and this time it has slashed interest rates on loans for new cars. Furthermore, SBI, the country's biggest bank has also reduced its lending rate against warehouse receipts for farmers.

Geneva  - Shares in UBS tumbled badly Friday, a day after the United States authorities issued a lawsuit against the bank demanding that it hand over about 52,000 names of clients.

However, the Swiss federal administrative court later issued a temporary order banning the transfer of any data to the US until it heard a case brought by UBS clients against handing over their information.

Geneva  - Shares in UBS tumbled badly Friday, a day after the United States authorities issued a lawsuit against the bank demanding that it hand over about 52,000 names of clients.

At one point in early morning trading the stocks dropped 17 per cent, and ultimately closed the day at 11 Swiss francs, down 14 per cent from its opening price.

The bank, the largest in Switzerland, said it would challenge the US lawsuit.

Mexico City - Mexico's central bank cut the leading interest rate by 25 basic points Friday to leave it at 7.5 per cent.

This was the second interest rate cut in Mexico in little over a month.

The Bank of Mexico said the global financial crisis continued to get tougher, and said that, although inflation has shown a downward trend since January, "the strong financial turbulence that was observed recently represents a risk."