Norwegian bank DnB NOR on Tuesday announced that it has introduced a representative office in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

The Mumbai division was formally opened by Rune Bjerke, DnB NOR President and CEO, at a ceremonial occasion attended by the Norwegian Ambassador to India, Her Excellency Ms Ann Ollestad.

The bank said that it opened an office in Mumbai to cater to its strong base of ship owning community plus providing services to domestic companies that have sound presence in the Indian market.

Zurich  - UBS, the Swiss banking giant, lost more money last year than originally reported, it noted Wednesday, primarily due to a large fine it had to pay United States authorities as part of a tax settlement.

In 2008, UBS lost a record 20.9 billion Swiss francs (18 billion dollars). Last month it had reported losses of 19.6 billion francs and announced job cuts. Most of the losses came from its investment banking sector.

Washington  - Bernard Madoff, whose alleged 50-billion-dollar investment fraud undermined individual and institutional investors around the globe, is to plead guilty this week, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The lawyer, Ira Sorkin, made the remarks at a federal court hearing in New York, Bloomberg financial news agency reported. The news confirmed reports from last week that Madoff was expected to enter a guilty plea.

Kolkata-based public sector lender Allahabad Bank has plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore through bonds by this month end.

Out of total proposed amount, the bank intends to raise Rs 900 crore through tier-II bonds and Rs 100 crore through tier-I bonds.

According to sources, capital worth Rs 900 crore would be raise through Rs 500 crore by way of upper tier-II bonds and Rs 400 crore through subordinated bonds in the lower tier-II category.

Country's largest automobile company Tata Motors on Tuesday informed that it has entered into a tie-up with the Union Bank of India (UBI) for financing its range of passenger vehicles.

Under the arrangement, the lender will offer car loans up to 85 per cent of invoice, for tenure ranging up to five years, at a rate of 11-11.25 per cent.

The loan facility will be available at all branches of Union Bank of India and 329 sales touch-points of Tata Motors, company stated in a release.

Brussels - Shares in fallen Belgian banking giant Fortis surged by over 40 per cent on Monday morning as investors gave an enthusiastic welcome to a sell-off deal agreed with French bank BNP Paribas over the weekend.

As markets opened, Fortis shares jumped up to 1.42 euros (1.80 dollars), 42.6 per cent above the close on Friday. They fell back during early trading to 1.20 euros, 25 per cent above Friday's close.