Westdeutsche Landesbank AG

As a Landesbank, WestLB's core business was wholesale banking on behalf of the region's Sparkassen, but it expanded into numerous risky activities that ultimately led to its restructuring and dismantlement in the late 2000s.

This in turn inspired the creation of a similar institution in the neighboring Prussian Rhine Province, the Rheinische Provinzial-Hülfskasse founded in Cologne in 1854 and relocated in Düsseldorf in 1877.

In December 1977, Ludwig Poullain [de], who had become WestLB's CEO at its creation in 1969, announced intent to resign, but was instead fired by the Supervisory Board for gross neglect.

Profits again dropped by two-thirds in the fiscal year 1980, leading to calls for the departure of Poullain's successor Johannes Völling [de], who eventually resigned in July 1981.

In May 1988, together with other major German banks, it provided large-scale loans to the Soviet Union, and (through a Swiss subsidiary) purchased Moscow's first foreign bond issuance since the 1917 revolution.

[3] In February 2008, as the global credit crisis evolved, WestLB was allocated a 5bn Euros guarantee by North Rhine Westphalia and a group of local banks.

In November 2008, the board of WestLB announced that it intended to obtain state loan guarantees and look at raising additional capital from the government of Germany specially set up bailout fund.

Besides, EAA and another organisation under the roof of Hessian and Thuringian Landesbank Helaba are dealing with the aftermath of the quasi bankruptcy and carrying on with core functions of the former WestLB.