By the time of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, LBBW had already grown to become the biggest and strongest of Germany's seven remaining independent public Landesbanken. It nonetheless had to take a state bailout of 5 billion euros and reduced its portfolio of toxic assets to 3 billion euros by 2014 from 95 billion in 2008. Similar to other public lenders, it opted for support from its regional state owner instead of drawing on help from SoFFin, the federal government's bail-out scheme. By 2009, the European Commission approved a restructuring plan which had the institution focus on its core regional banking businesses, curtail capital market and proprietary trading activities and shrink its balance sheet.