The woes of WestLB, which has received $11 billion in taxpayer support since 2009, are symptomatic of a larger problem in the German economy. Many of its biggest banks are still on government life support after making bad lending bets during the bubble years. And with their access to cheap capital long gone, their prospects of becoming profitable again are dubious, the International Herald Tribune reported.

European Union regulators will review competing restructuring plans for WestLB AG, the state- owned lender bailed out during the financial crisis, from the bank’s board and the German government, Bloomberg reported. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble proposed the bank transfer its non-saleable assets to a so-called bad bank and sell the rest of its portfolio, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in an e-mailed statement today. Savings banks would take over the rest of the bank, he said.

Defunct law firm Halliwells owes unsecured creditors more than £190m, according to the latest report from administrators BDO, Legalweek.com reported. To date BDO has received claims worth £191.5m from unsecured creditors. Landlord and lease creditors account for £182.2m of claims received to date, with HM Revenue & Customs the next largest creditor with some £4.3m in taxes and £1.1m in VAT. The debt figure is significantly higher than the £14.1m originally thought to be owed to unsecured creditors.

Euro zone finance ministers have eliminated the prospect of any move to impose losses on senior bondholders in Ireland’s banks, economics commissioner Olli Rehn said, the Irish Times reported. Although Fine Gael and Labour each say they would compel the highest-ranked bank bondholders to bear “haircuts” on their investment if they won the election, the commissioner said Ireland’s European sponsors see no possibility to pursue that path.

Dutch bioscience company Pantarhei intends to bid for the bulk of U.S. company Merck's Netherlands-based bioscience research unit Organan, the Dutch Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday, Reuters reported. Pantarhei Bioscience director Herjan Coeling Bennink, told the paper that Pantarhie can make the proposal as a result of backing from international private equity investors. No financial details were provided. The private equity investors were not named either.

Anglo Irish Bank has told David Drumm’s bankruptcy proceedings in the US that it intends to sue him for his role in the treatment of Seán FitzPatrick’s loans and other controversial matters at the bank, the Irish Times reported. The bank has said it is going to pursue a claim for breach of fiduciary duty against its former chief executive arising from alleged misconduct and deception.

Top European Union officials signaled Monday that the bloc's new bailout fund for troubled countries will be able to lend €500 billion ($677 billion)—nearly twice the current pool of money—but cautioned that agreement would only come in concert with accord on a constellation of related economic issues, The Wall Street Journal reported. On those, there were few signs of progress at a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers Monday.

The head of the European Union’s new banking authority has warned that he plans to use the “true power” of a single set of rules to impose more uniform oversight on banks, the Financial Times reported. The move potentially emasculates national regulators in EU member states, such as the UK’s Financial Services Authority. Some bankers fear it may harm innovation and competitiveness. Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority, said the financial crisis had highlighted the weakness of consensual efforts to co-ordinate banking regulation in Europe.

Owners of troubled state lender WestLB AG failed to agree on the terms of a European Commission-demanded restructuring plan over the weekend and could keep haggling right up to the plan's submission deadline at midnight Tuesday, several people close to the matter told Dow Jones Monday. WestLB owners have to present a restructuring plan to the commission that outlines how the bank will shrink its balance sheet, while detailing its search for new owners by the end of 2011 and outlining a long-term business model.

An indignant Greece slammed EU and International Monetary Fund inspectors overseeing its efforts to reform its debt-crippled economy, accusing them Saturday of overstepping their role and interfering in Greece's internal affairs, the Associated Press reported. In an unusually harshly worded, pre-dawn statement, government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis called the behavior of the inspectors at a Friday news conference unacceptable. "We have needs, but we also have limits. And we do not negotiate the limits of our dignity with anyone," Petalotis said.