Frankfurt - Major central banks have intervened in foreign exchange markets to improved liquidity, a statement early Thursday from the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt said.

It said the concerted move aimed to ease strains in worldwide exchange of dollars. Together with other moves by individual central banks in recent days, it would improve liquidity on world financial markets.

The participating banks were the ECB, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

All national banks have decided to suspend their work on September 24 and 25. The two day strike is called by the Kerla unit of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). The nation wide strike would adversely hit the banking services for two days. About one lakh bank employees and officers are expected to participate in the strike.

The second largest bank of India, ICICI would suffer most from the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers. The bank has reserved additional $28 mn to cover losses.

The UK subsidiary of ICICI has a good exposure in US market. It has about $80 million in Lehman’s senior bonds. ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director & CFO, Chanda Kochhar added that the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers would cast far reaching effect on the global economy. The balance sheet for the current quarter would determine the actual loses. The brokerage firm Edelweiss, forecasted a loss of around $200 million to the bank for its exposure in the US market.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is taking steps to deal with global financial crisis. It has announced various measures to ensure proper supply of cash in the market. The apex bank has provided ease in the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to address the cash need of banks. Banks are required to keep 25 percent of their liabilities as SLR securities as per current rules. The bank has now provided relaxation to banks by one percent. It would manage liquidity by conducting LAF operations on daily basis. Banks need not pay penal interest to break the SLR norm.

Tokyo - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) injected 1.5 trillion yen (14.3 billion dollars) into the money market Thursday to stabilize the markets affected by the fallout from the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers earlier this week.

Japan's central bank moved on its emergency operation for the third day.

BOJ pumped 5.5 trillion yen into the markets over the last two days, while banks said potential losses from the collapse were relatively small as they had limited their exposure.

London - Lloyds Bank in Britain has agreed to a merger with the country's biggest mortgage lender, HBOS, creating a banking giant that will dominate the savings and mortgage markets, the BBC reported late Wednesday.

The boards of the two banks agreed to the deal after crisis talks in London, at a price of 232 pence per HBOS share, valuating the mortgage lender at 12 billion pounds (21 billion dollars).