The European Commission will decide in the next few months how much German state bank WestLB will have to repay in a state aid case, a German newspaper said on Saturday.
The Boersen-Zeitung said, citing Commission sources, that the decision would be made by summer along the guidelines of the European Court of First Instance, and that WestLB could have to repay more than one billion euros ($1.27 billion).
WestLB declined to comment.
An early decision could push WestLB, which is expected to report a big loss in 2003, to raise capital quickly.
Its supervisory board head said in December Germany's third biggest state bank could ask shareholders for permission to raise more than one billion euros to finance growth, but the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a big stakeholder, has said it will not back the capital hike.
European Union sources had told Reuters last month that the Commission would possibly recalculate its demands on WestLB and other banks and that a decision may come only after the end of EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti's term in November.
The case centres on a dispute between the Commission and Germany over whether the transfer of publicly owned real estate from North-Rhine Westphalia to WestLB at below market prices constituted illegal state aid.
In March, the European Court of First Instance, the second-highest EU court, annulled a Commission decision ordering Germany to claw back 808 million euros from WestLB but backed the Commission's claim that the 1990s asset transfer could be classified as state aid.
WestLB made a loss of 1.7 billion euros in 2002, prompting the resignation of its chief executive and forcing a strategic review of its businesses. German media have predicted that the bank will report an even larger loss for 2003.