El Banco estatal de Crédito para la Reconstrucción y el Desarrollo (KfW), brazo financiero del gobierno alemán, transfirió a Lehman Brothers 300 millones de euros, horas antes de su quiebra el pasado lunes, cuando numerosas noticias publicadas en prensa ya anunciaban el posterior desenlace.

Esta transferencia de 300 millones de euros se hizo de forma automática para cubrir el pago de un swap en divisas y conllevará seguramente la pérdida total de esta cifra. Este banco no tomo medidas como si hicieron importantes entidades financieras españolas, que obligaron durante ese día a realizar de forma manual gran parte de las coberturas de derivados con Lehman u otras entidades de riesgo para asegurarse los cobros pertinentes o evitar pagos no cubiertos.

Esta pérdida se unirá a las ya pérdidas multimillonarias ocasionadas por el rescate del banco germano IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, la primera y mayor víctima alemana de la crisis subprime, al que el KfW inyectó 8.000 millones de euros para salvar de la quiebra, y que posteriormente vendió su participación del 90% al fondo estodounidense Lone Star, especializado en la compra de empresas en dificultades, por sólo 115 millones de euros, todo un negocio.

STATE-RUN DFW THROWS AWAY €300M
Germany's dumbest bankers
German bank KfW faces an investigation after officials discovered that it threw away €300 million in a transfer to Lehman Brothers - hours before the failing American firm collapsed.
KfW made the massive transfer on Monday morning, after a tumultuous weekend for Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank, which declared bankruptcy shortly afterwards.

KfW Bank head Ulrich Schröder (56).
The bank’s new head, Ulrich Schroder, who has only been in office for 18 days, is already being blamed for the costly mistake by outraged German officials.
How could such a costly and wasteful mistake be allowed to happen?
KfW spokesman Michael Helbig explained that bank computers automatically transferred the €300million to Lehman Brothers - yet nobody at KfW caught the error.
The issue was not even noted at an internal meeting KfW had held the previous Friday in order to discuss possible strategies in case of a Lehman Brothers collapse. The spokesman said: “The problem was not noticed. We are now investigating why the transfer was not stopped.”

German officials are furious, as the state-owned bank’s mistake is likely to cost the government. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck (Social Democratic Party) has already threatened the KfW with consequences, and his spokesman Torsten Albig labelled the incident as “baffling” and “annoying”.
The Finance Ministry in Berlin has planned an inquiry to find exactly who is to blame.