(The Wall Street Journal) -- Amid heavy losses related to the global credit crisis, WestLB, one of Germany's largest state-controlled banks, will begin talks about a full or partial merger with two other state-controlled banks, according to a WestLB shareholder.

One of the WestLB owners said yesterday that the bank, based in the German region of North Rhine Westfalia, would begin talks with Landesbank Hessen Thuringia, the public-sector bank serving the regions of Hessen and Thuringia.