The Reserve Bank of India may again revise key interest rates by around 50 basis points in next couple of days at a time when inflation rate reduced to 0.44 per cent and country is moving toward deflation.

The significant decline in inflation gives enough room to Apex bank for interest rate revision in order to stimulate demand in the economy, facing the heat of global slowdown. However, the central bank is unlikely to revise cash reserve ratio and statutory liquid ration according to the officials of finance ministry.

Washington - Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke Friday was optimistic about the market's responses to a series of crisis measures undertaken by the central bank to stem the financial crisis.

"So far, we have generally been encouraged by the market responses, including the decline in mortgage interest rates," Bernanke said in speech to community bankers in Phoenix, Arizona.

New York - Financier Bernard Madoff will have to sit in jail while waiting for his sentencing after pleading guilty to a massive scam that bilked billions of dollars from thousands of investors, US media reported.

An appellate court in New York upheld a judge's previous ruling that Madoff should not be released pending his June 16 sentencing because he has the financial means to flee, MSNBC reported.

Riga  - Troubled Latvian bank Parex got a boost on Thursday when it confirmed it had agreed terms with creditors to pay back around 775 million euros (1 billion dollars) in syndicated loans.

Failure to reach a compromise deal would have seen a group of 60 lenders, including Germany's Commerzbank, demanding immediate payment, effectively forcing Parex out of business.

Zurich  - The Swiss bank UBS said Thursday it has made a tender offer worth up to 1 billion euros (1.34 billion dollars) to buy back bonds in an attempt to raise its Tier 1 regulatory capital ratio.

The offer pertains to four lower tier 2 bonds with maturity dates between November 2015 and September 2019 and a notional value of around 7 billion Swiss francs (6.15 billion dollars).

The bank said in a statement that the bonds were currently trading at a significant discount to their original issuance price.

Tier 1 capital ratio is a regulatory measure of a bank's financial stamina.

ICICI Bank is looking for ways to divert its ATM management and points of sale terminals (POS) into a different unit.

Moreover, the country’s largest private lender has also invited bids from private equity funds as well as banking technology companies for stake in this arm.

ICICI Bank has the second-largest ATM network with more than 4,600 Automated Teller Machines (ATM), and the largest PoS network with over two lakh terminals.