BRUSSELS, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission approved on Wednesday a state-backed rescue for German regional public bank WestLB, hit by its exposure to the US market for subprime home loans.

DUESSELDORF, Germany, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - The German regional public bank WestLB posted on Wednesday a 2007 net loss of 1.6 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) as a result of global financial turmoil and stock trading losses.

A month ago WestLB had said it expected a net loss of about one billion euros, following a gain of 799 million in 2006.

FRANKFURT, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - German bank director Heinz Hilgert has been elected board chairman of the troubled regional bank WestLB as it tries to overcome subprime problems with billions of euros in state backing, the bank said Tuesday.

Hilgert, 54, formerly ran the Frankfurt-based cooperative DZ Bank and will take over from Alexander Stuhlmann on May 1, a statement said.

FRANKFURT, Feb 25, 2008 (AFP) - Subprime-hit public German bank WestLB could be sold to private interests, a representative of the savings bank's shareholders was quoted as saying on Monday.

'We have no taboos, we can talk about anything,' Alexander Wueerst told the Financial Times Deutscheland.

FRANKFURT, Feb 11, 2008 (AFP) - Troubled German regional bank WestLB is looking for a new chief executive now that its owners have reached agreement on a rescue plan, a member of its supervisory board said Monday.

FRANKFURT, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - More than a thousand job cuts plus several billion euros in public funds added up to a rescue plan for the German regional bank WestLB that was unveiled on Friday prior to its possible sale.

FRANKFURT, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - Troubled regional German lender WestLB is to cut between 1,300 and 1,500 jobs by 2010 as part of a plan announced Friday to turn the bank around.

FRANKFURT, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - Troubled regional German bank WestLB said Friday that its owners had agreed on a plan to secure the bank's future, which had been put in doubt by its exposure to the US home loan crisis.

WestLB said in a statement that the accord covered the company's business model and a state-owned banking consolidation.

FRANKFURT, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - Troubled German regional bank WestLB plans to cut 1,700 jobs, or around 30 percent of its workforce, as part of a plan to save it from ruin, the German magazine Focus said Friday.

FRANKFURT, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - The third-biggest regional German bank, WestLB, is to eliminate 1,700 jobs over 12 months, or around 30 percent of its workforce, as part of a broad restructuring plan, a press report said Friday.

The decision is to be approved February 7 by the bank's supervisory board, the magazine Focus said in an advance release of its Monday edition.