Credit Institutions : Germany

There are a wide variety of financial institutions in Germany, ranging from public savings banks, credit cooperatives (Volksbanken and Raiff-eisenbanken) and private banks to building and loan associations, mortgage banks, central giro institutions, central depositaries for securities, and investment trusts. In the course of time, a concentration process has taken place in the banking sector, however. Whereas there were just under 14,000 independent credit institutions in the 1950s, by 1996 the number had shrunk to 3,675. And the trend continues, with about 85 cooperative banks merging into larger group institutions every year. The number of private bankers is likewise dwindling.

In 1957 there were 245 private banking houses, at the end of 1996 only 59. There are 326 commercial banks (including the “Big Three” - the Deutsche Bank, the Dresdner Bank and the Commerzbank), 13 central giro institutions, 607 savings banks, the DG Bank Deutsche Genossen-schaftsbank as the central institution of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken as well as three regional cooperative central banks, 2,504 credit cooperatives, Deutsche Postbank AG, 35 mortgage banks and public mortgage banks, 17 credit institutions with special functions, and 34 building and loan associations. The private commercial banks include large ones that are stock corporations.