Bundesbank chief steps aside for inquiry

Germany’s central bank president has agreed under pressure to step aside temporarily after prosecutors opened an inquiry into a hotel stay that a commercial bank paid for him, the Bundesbank said.

Ernst Welteke became the subject of a Bundesbank review after Der Spiegel magazine reported this week on his New Year’s 2002 stay at Berlin’s ritzy Hotel Adlon Kempinski to attend ceremonies greeting the introduction of euro notes and coins.