
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück announcing their plan for Hypo Real Estate in Berlin on Sunday. (Pool photo by Rainer Jensen)
FRANKFURT: As German leaders and bankers worked feverishly to rescue a lender considered too big to fail, the government announced Sunday that it would guarantee all private savings accounts in Germany - worth about €500 billion - in an effort to reinforce increasingly shaky confidence in the financial system.
Officials in Berlin were frantically trying to salvage a €35 billion, or $48 billion, bailout devised just a week ago for Hypo Real Estate, a major German property lender based in Munich and member of the benchmark stock index, after commercial banks withdrew their support, fearing greater losses.
Tags: Credit Crisis, credit crunch, Economy, Fortis, Germany, Government, Hypo Real Estate, mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Politics, taxpayers




