Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW), Germany’s biggest state-owned lender, will sell or close its Irish operation as part of a companywide rationalisation that will see it shed about 2,500 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, by 2013.

The reorganisation approved by its board yesterday includes slashing assets by 40 per cent and scaling back non-strategic operations. – (Bloomberg)