Geneva - Banking giant Credit Suisse Group reported Thursday a net profit of 2 billion Swiss francs (1.71 billion dollars) in the first quarter of 2009, in part owing to a recovery of its trading unit.

Last year's first quarter saw the bank lose 2.15 billion francs.

The investment banking segment reported income before taxes of 2.41 billion in the first quarter of 2009, compared with a 3.42 billion loss last year.

Private sector lender Yes Bank on Wednesday informed that its net profit rose 24.20% to Rs 80.11 crore in the quarter ended March 2009 as against Rs 64.50 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2008.

In addition, the lender's total operating income also grew 46.44% to Rs 566.31 crore in the quarter ended March 2009 as against Rs 386.73 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2008.

For the full year, bank's net profit surged by 51.90% to Rs 303.84 crore in the year ended March 2009 as against Rs 200.02 crore during the previous year ended March
2008.

With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having decided on the slashing of short-term lending and borrowing rates - the repo and reverse repo rates - by 25 basis points apiece in its 2009-10 annual monetary policy, banks intend cutting lending rates, thereby making consumer, home, personal and corporate loans cheaper.

While the repo rate has been slashed to 4.75 percent and reverse repo to 3.25 percent, the other key ratios - like the Cash Reserve Ratio and the deposit-percentage that banks keep with the RBI - have remained unchanged.

Mumbai, Apr 21: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revealed the annual monetary policy here on Tuesday.

According to the report, the short-term lending (repo) rate and borrowing (reverse repo) rates have been reduced by 25 basis points.

The repo rate, thus stands at 3.25 per cent while reverse repo rate stands at 4.75 per cent.

The RBI has said that there is scope for banks to cut lending rates and has asked banks to review their benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR).

A committee has now been formed to review the BPLR system.

Stockholm - Sweden's central bank said Tuesday it was to cut its interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.50 per cent, saying the move was "necessary to dampen the fall in production and employment."

One of the six governors on the Riksbank board, Lars O Svensson, wanted a greater cut to 0.25 per cent, and "entered a reservation," the central bank said in a statement.

The Riksbank governors said Sweden has been hit "hard" by the global financial dowturn.

Manila - Emerging Asia's capital markets are starting to stabilize, but their recovery could be lengthy and hard amid uncertainty over the global economic downturn, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said Tuesday.

The Manila-based ADB urged the region's relatively resilient economies to help the equity, bond and currency markets recover as the global crisis ebbs and investor appetite returns, by improving regulation and supervision.