Europese Commissie eist dat Duitse regering 3 miljard euro terugvordert van Landesbanken (en)

The European Commission has concluded its long-standing investigation into the transfer of public assets, in the early 90s, to seven German regional public banks by ordering Germany to recover € 3 billion plus interests. The decision ends the probe into the Landesbanken which occupied the Commission for about 10 years and which culminated with a landmark agreement, in 2001 and 2002, on the issue of the state guarantees (Anstaltslast and Gewaehrtraegerhaftung) attached to the banks' statute.

"These decisions close a very long and painful dispute between private and public banks in Germany thereby creating a level playing field in the sector which is in the interest of businesses operating in Germany, of the consumers/taxpayers and of the banks themselves as it removes the uncertainty which had been hanging upon them for too long," said Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.

At the beginning of the nineties, the introduction of the Own Funds and Solvency Directives required German public banks to take up large amounts of new capital in order to maintain their level of activities.

That capital was provided by the German regional governments (Länder), which partly or fully own the banks, by way of a transfer of public housing and other assets.

The financial transfers triggered a complaint by the Association of German Private Banks (BdB) as they were under the same obligation to increase their solvency ratios without, however, being able to rely on public support.

The complaint concerned seven banks (in parentesis the dates when the capital transfer took place): Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (WestLB) (1991), the biggest of the German public banks, but also Landesbank Berlin (1993), Norddeutsche Landesbank (1991), Bayerische Landesbank (1994 and 1995), Hamburgische Landesbank (1993), Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein (1991) and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (1998).

In 1999, the Commission adopted a first negative decision concerning the transfer to WestLB and ordering the recovery of some €800 million. In 2003, the Court of First Instance annulled the decision taking the view that the Commission had not sufficiently explained its calculations but confirming the decision on the substance.

The Commission's careful assessment has shown that the remuneration agreed by the Länder in return for the transfer of assets was very low (less than 1 %) and did not correspond to the normal return on investment that a private investor would have expected (which has been estimated at some 6-7%, except for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen where the interest rate is substantially lower).

The Commission has, therefore, established that the reduced remuneration constitutes State aid within the meaning of Article 87(1) of the EU Treaty and has ordered Germany to take measures to recover the difference from the Landesbanken.

Although the seven cases are similar in many respects, they differ in the amount and form of capital transferred the date of transfer and the amount of capital actually used to underpin commercial business among other things. As a result, the amounts to be recovered from each bank are:

-- WestLB: € 979 million plus interest

-- Landesbank Berlin: € 810 million plus interest

-- Norddeutsche Landesbank: € 472 million plus interest

-- Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein: € 432 million plus interest

-- Bayerische Landesbank: € 260 million plus interest

-- Hamburgische Landesbank: € 90 million plus interest

-- Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen: € 6 million plus interest

The ending of the procedures was facilitated by bilateral negotiations and an ensuing agreement reached, last month, between the Landesbanken, the Länder concerned and the complainant, BdB, on the appropriate remunerations for the transferred assets.