The Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (abbreviated NORD/LB) is a German Landesbank and one of the largest commercial banks in Germany. It is a public corporation majority-owned by the federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt with its head office in Hanover and branches in Braunschweig and Magdeburg. Regional Sparkassen hold a minority stake of 35 percent. History Beginnings NORD/LB was established in 1765 as Braunschweigische Staatsbank. Under the current name, the bank started its business on 1 July 1970. The main areas of specialization of NORD/LB are investment banking, agricultural and real estate banking, corporate finance, ship and aircraft financing and private banking. NORD/LB maintains branch offices in all major financial and trading centers, including London (since 1985), Singapore (since 2004) and New York City (since 1991). Today, NORD/LB is Germany's largest bank for national and international bond issues. In 1992, a new state treaty between the federal states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania was signed so that NORD/LB; NORD/LB became the first landesbank owned by three German federal states. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania sold its stake in NORD/LB in 2005. Financial crisis of 2007-2010 Before the financial crisis of 2007–2008, NORD/LB, like many German banks, pushed into lending to companies transporting the world's burgeoning trade in goods and raw materials, propelling Germany to the top spot in ship lending worldwide. Following the crisis, it joined peers such as HSH Nordbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Hypothekenbank and KfW in taking large writedowns and boosting capital buffers against the risk of shipping loans turning sour. In 2010, NORD/LB sold its minority share in DnB NORD to Norwegian DNB ASA. Similar to other public lenders, it opted for additional support from its regional state owners instead of drawing on help from SoFFin, the federal government’s bail-out scheme. Restructuring By 2016, however, NORD/LB still saw a record loss of 1.96 billion euros ($2.1 billion), caused by 2.94 billion euros in provisions for bad shipping loans. As a result, it took full control of its loss-making Bremer Landesbank (BLB) unit, which suffered particularly from a weak shipping market that was chipping away at its capital. Between 2016 and 2017, NORD/LB engaged in – ultimately unsuccessful – negotiations on selling a $1.5 billion portfolio of shipping loans to KKR Credit and a sovereign wealth fund. By late 2016, it still had about 8 billion euros in non-performing shipping loans in its books. In 2016, NORD/LB also tasked N