BERLIN, April 9 (UPI) -- The German government is indirectly urging federal bank head Ernst Welteke to resign after he admitted accepting an improper gift.
The German finance ministry issued a statement Friday saying it assumed Welteke would understand the consequences of his actions given the responsibility associated with his position and institution, the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reports.
Welteke has already stepped down temporarily from the federal Bundesbank after admitting he accepted the gift of a hotel stay worth several thousand dollars from a commercial bank he was charged with regulating.
The finance ministry has now, however, said that move is not sufficient to protect the Bundesbank's reputation -- a statement seen as a thinly veiled call for Welteke's resignation.
The finance ministry has no jurisdiction over the federal bank, which is protected from government intervention by law.
The scandal around Welteke's hotel stay began earlier this week, when a newsmagazine revealed he had stayed in one of Berlin's most expensive hotels with his family at the expense of the commercial Dresdner Bank. The stay was estimated to be worth about $9,200.
Welteke has since repaid half of that amount.
