The German central bank or Bundesbank said Tuesday it has received the final instalment of the money it had invested in Lehman Brothers, 6.5 years after the collapse of the US banking giant.
"Our final outstanding claim of around 1.9 billion euros was settled in January from the insolvency assets of Lehman's German subsidiary and the US parent company," the Bundesbank said in a statement.
"At the end of a six-and-a-half year insolvency and recovery process, we have not only received our initial claim of over 8.5 billion euros. But with the additional interest and costs of around 0.8 billion euros, we've emerged from the process with our accounts in balance," said Bundesbank executive board member Joachim Nagel.
At the time of the collapse of the US investment bank in mid-September 2008, the Bundesbank, as a member of the Eurosystem of central banks, had claims totalling 8.5 billion euros ($9.6 billion) against Lehman.
The bank had used highly complex financial instruments such as asset-backed securities (ABS) as collateral for central bank loans.
In the ensuing crisis, the market for such securities effectively collapsed. But instead of immediately selling all of its holdings of such securities, the Bundesbank gradually sold them off over the years to professional investors such as hedge funds.