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Deutsche Welle

In the midst of the global financial crisis some German bankers may now be made responsible for poor investment decisions. The ailing investment bank IKB has filed a lawsuit against its former chairman Stefan Ortseifen, demanding the repayment of over 800,000 euros. Three other ex-managers at the Düsseldorf-based bank have been told to repay sums of around half-a-million euros each. One serving manager has reportedly already returned his bonus pay. IKB said the payments were supposed to be linked to performance. The lender was the first major German banking casualty of the sub-prime crisis, and was forced to rely on a publicly funded bail-out to rescue it from collapse.