Berlin - In a one-day legislative marathon, Germany adopted Friday one of the world's biggest bail-outs, to inject 480 billion euros (650 billion dollars) into shaky banks.

In barely seven hours, both chambers of parliament debated and passed the bill and Germany's president Horst Koehler, gave the bill his assent so it could be gazetted.

Two small opposition parties, the Left and the Greens, opposed the bill in the Bundestag chamber. The Bundesrat upper chamber, representing the 16 state governments, passed the bill unanimously.

The package aims at shoring up confidence in banks following weeks of share market turmoil.

Berlin - With the threat of recession looming large over Germany, the chief of the nation's biggest bank is to forego his bonus for the year, according a media report Friday.

Vienna - Applying Austria's bail-out plan for the first time, leading financial institutions and the government are stepping in to rescue Constantia Privatbank AG, which was faced with a liquidity crunch, the finance ministry said Friday.

Five major Austrian banks are set to take over 100 per cent of the private banking institution that was reportedly suffering from an outflow of capital as major customers shifted their funds to bigger institutions.

In addition, the banks decided to inject 400 million euros (538 million dollars) into Constantia, while the Austrian national bank will contribute 50 million euros.

As foreseen in the Austrian government's banking package, the state will guarantee the capital injection.

The Reserve Bank of India has reduced the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 100 bps. CRR is the proportion of total sum , a bank reserves with the apex bank. The current move of the reserve bank would provide Rs 40,000 crore in the Indian monetary system. The move of the apex bank would help the cash-starved financial system of the country. The bank has cut the CRR by 2.5 percent so far.

Berlin - Germany is to create a special agency for its bank rescue after the country's central bank said its independence would be compromised if it became an arm of government policy, sources said in Berlin Thursday.

The move came as Chancellor Angela Merkel met with leaders of the 16 states to negotiate on the package, announced three days earlier. She aims to have the legislation in place by late Friday.

Reykjavik  - The central bank of Iceland on Thursday said it would guarantee payments in an effort to restore confidence in the Icelandic banking system amid a global credit squeeze that has disrupted payments to and from the North Atlantic nation.

The central bank, Sedlabanki, said it "guarantees" that the funds "will reach the ultimate beneficiaries' accounts."

Last week, the government in Reykjavik nationalized the country's three largest banks, which have run up liabilities at least five times that of Iceland's gross national product in recent years.