Bayerische Landesbank will refrain from undertaking risky investments in order to be a “very solid and safe business” focused on small- and medium-sized Bavarian companies, Passauer Neue Presse reported, citing Markus Soeder, finance minister of the state of Bavaria.

Soeder added that the bank plans to avoid high risk securities and cut its balance sheet in half, the newspaper reported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt at crahn2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net