Shareholders of British Bank Barclays on Monday approved a proposal for raising $10 billion in fresh funds. The move comes close on the heels of the rescue of the troubled US bank Citigroup.

Barclays chairman Marcus Agius said the investors had voted in favour of the move and the final tally will be known later. Barclays, however, expect the plan to be carried out with at least 75 per cent votes in favour.
 
One of Barclay's top five investors, Legal & General, had last week said the plan would find approval, though the structure of the controversial deal, which gave an upper hand to new investors at the cost of traditional shareholders' pre-emption rights, was not to its liking.
 
Meanwhile, emerging markets bank Standard Chartered announced it would raise 1.8 billion pounds in a rights issue.
 
The London-based lender plans to take advantage of the current turmoil with the raised funds. StanChart chief executive Peter Sands said the additional capital will give the bank greater flexibility. This will enable the bank to take advantage of emerging opportunities for growth from the turmoil.

He added that many of their competitors are in disarray due to lack of capital, liquidity or from distractions due to other problems.

In Europe, Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann said in a letter to staff that the German bank was considering changes in business strategies.

In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates introduced measures to boost confidence in a policy shift that will allow it to bail out Dubai's lenders. This is sought to be achieved through capital injection into Emirates Development Bank, a newly created rescue vehicle to absorb merging Islamic lenders Amlak and Tamweel.