Landesbank


In German-speaking jurisdictions, Landesbank,, refers to a category of public sector banks that are owned by one or more of the Länder. Institutions of this type exist in most German states, as well as Austria and Switzerland.

Austria-Hungary

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy, Landesbanken were government-sponsored banks established in some of the kingdoms and lands of the crown:
By contrast, Vienna's Länderbank and its short-lived affiliate the Ungarische Landesbank were private-sector initiatives. The name Landesbank also survives in regional entities of the cooperative Raiffeisen Group in Austria and, similarly, the Raiffeisen Landesbank Südtirol – Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell'Alto Adige in the Italian region of South Tyrol.

Germany

The current Landesbanken are part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, one of the three pillars of Germany's banking system. Their business is predominantly wholesale banking, partly to serve local savings banks. With a few exceptions, Landesbanken and Sparkassen are chartered by national and state banking laws to pursue a public purpose. As of late 2022, they are:
Four other German institutions are named Landesbank without playing the role of the above five within the public sector:
  • Landesbank Berlin was converted into a joint-stock company in 2007, when the DSGV rescued it and took full ownership of its share capital; it is part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe
  • is a local public savings bank, part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe; its earliest predecessor was established in 1834 as Spar- und Leihkasse für das Fürstentum Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and was renamed Hohenzollerische Landesbank Spar- und Leihkasse in 1930
  • , another local public savings bank within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, is also occasionally referred to as Birkenfelder Landesbank because one of its predecessor entities was a local branch of Oldenburgische Landesbank, opened in Birkenfeld in 1914
  • Oldenburgische Landesbank has always been a private-sector bank, controlled since 2017 by Apollo Global Management.

    Liechtenstein

The German name of the National Bank of Liechtenstein is Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG.