Germany will ensure that, by 1 January 2005 at the latest, the development business of Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), an unincorporated institution, which has to date been managed as a department of Landesbank Berlin (LBB), will be transferred to a new and independent development bank of the Land of Berlin.
The IBB special reserve of Landesbank Berlin will be used, to the extent possible on 1 January 2004, to provide capital for the new development bank and will, therefore, be hived off from Landesbank, without the core‐capital ratio (tier one) within the Bankgesellschaft group (following the hiving‐off of IBB) falling below 6 %, but not for an amount of more than EUR 1,1 billion.
The part of the IBB special reserve that may still be necessary to provide capital for the Bankgesellschaft group in accordance with the above paragraph will be injected into LBB by the Land of Berlin directly or indirectly as a contribution in kind (which may, however, not exceed EUR 1,1 billion) in the form of one or more dormant holdings ranking as core capital. A claim by the Land of Berlin on LBB for the transfer of the corresponding part of the special reserve can be created and will then be injected into the dormant holdings.
The dormant holdings bear interest at normal market rates. In this connection, when the contract to set up the dormant companies is signed, a mark‐up on a reference interest rate determined according to the comparable core‐capital instruments traded on the market will be calculated on the basis of the long‐term rating of LBB, taking into account the discontinuation of institutional and guarantor liability (Anstaltslast and Gewährträgerhaftung) and in compliance with the contractual form of the dormant holdings. The comparability of the core‐capital instruments will be determined on the basis of the contractual rules for those instruments and the rating of each issuer.
The following summarises the contents of the commitments communicated by Germany on 6 February 2004. The original German text of the communication contains the wording relevant for this decision.