Georg Funke, the boss of Germany's ailing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate, stepped down Tuesday, only two days after Berlin bailed out the bank with a $68 billion aid package.
Funke was criticized not only for steering his bank into a severe crisis but also for not disclosing to the German government how much money the bank really owed.
The resignation does not come as a surprise: German Chancellor Angela Merkel had announced that heads would be rolling in connection with the bailout.
The German government also announced future plans to hold managers responsible for their failures.
"In the United States, managers are held liable with their private assets. We should also do that in Germany," Andrea Nahles, deputy chairwoman for the Social Democratic Party, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Managers in the future could be held responsible with amounts worth two years of salary, officials warned.
The German government intends to offer its proposals on manager liability before the end of the year.
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