The finance minister of Germany's eastern Saxony state said Friday he was stepping down, amid turmoil surrounding the state's SachsenLB bank, which has been battered by its exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages, AP reported. Horst Metz, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, told Saxony's state parliament he would leave his post Sept. 30. He made the announcement during an emergency session called to discuss the sale of SachsenLB to the public-sector Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg. Saxony was forced to sell SachsenLB, the only state-run bank in the former East Germany, in a swift action over the weekend to prevent it from going under. Metz' announcement comes a day after the remaining board members of SachsenLB announced they were resigning. Defaults among subprime mortgage holders have roiled markets worldwide, and the effects have been felt keenly in Germany, especially among public-sector banks.
