In a bid to provide more relief to students, India's largest lender, State Bank of India is planning to slash lending rates for education loans by 0.25 per cent as early as this week.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is urging the world's top economies to do what they have said they would - and quickly - so that early signs of improvement in the world outlook can be sustained.
Just a few years ago, companies staging annual meetings brought in acts like Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett. At the very least, they offered snacks as CEOs boasted about big profits.
This year, when stockholder Ram Bijapur decided to show up at the Hilton hotel for the Citigroup meeting because he was angry about the bank's steep losses, what he found was decidedly more sparse.
'They're so broke,' he observed, 'they can't even give us a bottle of water.'
As annual meetings ramp up in earnest for the first time since the economic meltdown, the gatherings are very different affairs. Perks and glitz are out. And, at least in the financial sector, shareholder anger is in.
The wait for news about the government's stress tests of big banks and a crush of earnings reports are likely to keep Wall Street on edge this week.
Investors whose burst of optimism sent stocks higher Friday will see if their bets _ which came in part on some stronger-than-expected earnings reports _ were well-founded. Hundreds of companies will be reporting their first-quarter results and their outlooks for the coming months.
'Companies that are being challenged will continue to be challenged, but the market is looking past what happened last quarter and looking more ahead to what's going to happen later this year,' said Jason Ronovech, portfolio manager for Paradigm Capital Management in Albany, N.Y.
A former IT analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and his brother were arrested Friday on charges that they took out loans using stolen information, including sensitive information belonging to federal employees at the bank.
Most Asian stock markets inched higher Monday ahead of a string of earnings reports from leading U.S. companies that could determine whether a huge spring rally stretches into its seventh straight week.
Stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai outperformed the region after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the country's massive stimulus package is working and the world's third-largest economy is faring 'better than expected.' The dollar weakened while oil prices slipped below $50 a barrel.
Many markets seesawed as investors awaited results that could test a growing belief that the world economy and banking system have turned a corner. Among the hundreds of U.S. companies due to report are Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM and McDonald's
American Express Co. is trying to siphon away U.S. Bancorp customers in a new marketing campaign it is rolling out.
You're not alone. "Investors are going to see that they've continued to contribute in the first quarter and their account still went down," said Dean Kohmann, vice president of 401 plan services at Charles Schwab & Co.
Thousands of Wall Streeters have been pushed to the exits , but those who remain could be handsomely rewarded.
Not long ago the International Monetary Fund seemed headed for relic status. Now it's once more flying high, rolling out ambitious plans to blanket an economically distressed world in dollars. Even grander designs are on the drawing board.
Yet the money might not cover the job and those lofty plans might never get approved.
Failure would carry a heavy political price because the Group of 20 countries have made the lending agency the linchpin in their efforts to combat the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
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