Banks reach agreement on Hypo Real Estate deal

Frankfurt - A group of banks reached agreement early Friday on the details of a planned multibillion-euro bail-out for Germany's ailing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate, sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The talks revolved around how much each participant would contribute to the 35-billion-euro (48-billion-dollar) deal to save the country's second largest mortgage lender. Details were not yet available, but were to be made public during the day on Friday.

Berlin and a group of banks and insurers had proposed a plan to save Hypo Real Estate from collapse earlier this week.

Berlin said it would not be nationalizing Munich-based HRE, but would post a guarantee for it of 26.6 billion euros, while German commercial banks would protect HRE from default with up to 8.5 billion euros.

The European Commission late Thursday gave its green light to the German government's guarantee. (dpa)

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