Brussels, 03/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has initiated formal investigation proceedings about a capital injection in to a German regional bank taking the form of a transfer to the bank of an institution governed by public law. At the end of 1992 the Land of Berlin transferred the housing loans institution Wohnungsbau-Kredietanstalt (WBK) to Landesbank Berlin, while the tasks previously assigned to WBK were transferred to the newly set up Investitionsbank Berlin. The Commission originally learnt of this transfer and other transfers to other Landesbanks as a result of a complaint lodged by a banking association, the Bundesverbank Deutscher Banken, which argued that there had been capital or asset transfers to several Landesbanks for which no consideration or only inadequate consideration had been paid, conferring an advantage on those banks. According to the Commission's current information, the difference between the payments made "and the normal market return on such an investment constitutes state aid, and that it is doubtful whether the aid is compatible with the common market.