As the United States continues to reel in the wake of a recession that seems mostly of Wall Street's own making, Barack Obama spoke to The Today Show on Monday and warned of more bank failures.

The Speaker of the House of Representative in Nigeria, Dimeji Bankole and the House Committee on Finance will be holding a business dialogue session on January 28, 2009 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja at 9am with the Chief Executives Officers (CEO) of various financial sectors to discuss the way forward in the industry.

With the global economic downturn intensifying in the past two months, the Government is today announcing a comprehensive package designed to reinforce the stability of the financial system, to increase confidence and capacity to lend, and in turn to support the recovery of the economy.

The Prime Minister of UK and the Chancellor have announced new measures to bring stability to the banking sector and ensure the resumption of lending to families and businesses across the UK.

Many people may be wondering about the banks and the stock markets being open today. Particularly the population in the USA is interested about the U.S. Bank Holidays of 2009 to know if they can do some banking today. The answer is yes and no.

British prime minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling will hold a press conference in 10 Downing Street at 09:00 GMT on Monday 19 January.

At the beginning of 2009, it greets the financial reform of China as tidings of great joy, that the Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) celebrates its inauguration in Beijing on January 16th, 2009. The inauguration indicates not only a critical triumph for the Bank's shareholding reform, but also the final stage for reforming the wholly state-owned commercial banks of the country.

Saxo bank predicts that in 2009 crude trading at $25. S&P 500 falls 50% to 500. China’s GDP growth falls to zero. EURUSD falls to 0.95. Italy could leave the ERM. If Saxo Bank’s 10 outrageous claims for the year ahead transpire, economic conditions will worsen dramatically in 2009. "The good thing is, overall, we predict 2009 will be a turning point because it can’t get much worse" says Chief Economist David Karsbøl.

The shares of Citigroup dropped after the stock market opening this morning and the stock (C) lost $9bn on Wall Street plunge.

A very disturbing unemployment news is coming from the 4th largest U.S. Bank as Citigroup announces massive layoffs. The news is that Citigroup will have to carry 50,000 job cuts. This is another sign that perhaps we are still at a considerable distance from the economic and financial recovery.

On November 7, 2008, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA was closed by the California Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed.

The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TDBFG) today announced that a group of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. has exercised the option to purchase an additional 0.8 million non-cumulative 5-Year Reset Preferred Shares, Series AC (the Series AC Shares) carrying a face value of $25.00 per share.