Two federal states in northern Germany were on Tuesday forced to agree a €13bn ($17bn) bail-out of HSH Nordbank, the shipping financier, whose writedowns on complex structured credit products have crippled the regional lender and blown a hole in state budgets.
Politicians from Schleswig-Holstein and the city-state of Hamburg, who together own about 60 per cent of HSH, met in Kiel to discuss the rescue package, which must still be approved by both parliaments.
