List of banks in Germany


The following list of banks in Germany is to be understood within the framework of the European single market and European banking union, which means that Germany's banking system is more open to cross-border banking operations than peers outside of the EU.

Context

Historical background

Germany stands out for the uniquely extensive development of its public banking sector, whose origins can be traced back to the late 18th century and which acquired some of its current features with the development of savings banks during the 19th century. Germany was also where a cooperative banking sector flourished first under leaders such as Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. Starting in the 1850s, joint-stock banks took momentum in various German states and developed rapidly into so-called Grossbanken, universal banks with connections with numerous industrial ventures forming loose conglomerates.
As a result, the banking sector in Germany has long been described of consisting of three "pillars", respectively public-sector banks, cooperative banks, and commercial banks - the latter including the Grossbanken and other joint-stock banks sometimes referred to as regional banks, as well as non-listed private banks. These pillars are still represented by separate trade bodies — respectively the VÖB, BVR and BdB — and rely on separate deposit guarantee schemes unlike in most other EU countries where a single scheme covers all deposits.

Policy framework

European banking supervision distinguishes between significant institutions and less significant institutions, with SI/LSI designations updated regularly by the European Central Bank. Significant institutions are directly supervised by the ECB using joint supervisory teams that involve the national competent authorities of individual participating countries. Less significant institutions are supervised by the relevant NCA on a day-to-day basis, under the supervisory oversight of the ECB. In Germany's case, the NCA is the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known by the German shorthand BaFin.
The EU framework provides for the possibility of institutional protection scheme that bind together networks of local banks into idiosyncratic risk-sharing arrangements. Of the EU's eight IPSs as of 2022, two are in Germany, namely the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe and German Cooperative Financial Group. The latter corresponds exactly to the cooperative pillar of the German banking system, whereas the SFG is only a subgroup of the public-sector pillar which also includes public development banks.

Significant institutions

As of, the ECB had the following 27 banking groups based in Germany in its list of significant institutions. 11 of the 27 belonged to the two German IPSs, and 7 were German affiliates of global banking groups headquartered outside of the EU:
A study published in 2024 assessed that the largest bank by assets in Germany at end-2023 was Deutsche Bank followed by DZ Bank, Commerzbank, J.P. Morgan, LBBW, Goldman Sachs, UniCredit, BayernLB, Helaba, ING, Morgan Stanley, NORD/LB, and DekaBank. Deutsche Bank has been consistently designated as Global systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board, including in the update of November 2025.
This ranking includes euro area banks based outside Germany that operate in Germany via subsidiaries, such as UniCredit via HypoVereinsbank and ING via ING DiBa. Other cases are Santander via Santander Consumer Bank Germany, Crédit Mutuel via Targobank, as well as ABN AMRO, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, and Société Générale. The ranking, however, does not feature banking groups that operate in Germany through branches and do not disclose the corresponding national branch assets, such as BNP Paribas whose branch operates its German brands Consorsbank and DAB BNP Paribas, or HSBC which operates in Germany through Paris-based HSBC Continental Europe. The ranking also does not take into account consolidated figures for the two German IPSs: also at end-2023, the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe disclosed combined total German assets of €2.5 trillion euros, and the Cooperative Financial Group disclosed consolidated assets of €1.6 trillion. Considered as banking groups, the SFG and Cooperative Financial Group therefore qualify as the two largest in Germany.

Less significant institutions

As of, the ECB's list of supervised institutions included 1,145 German LSIs out of 2,062 in the euro area, or 55.6 percent of the euro-area total.

High-impact LSIs

Of these, 27 were designated by the ECB as "high-impact" on the basis of several criteria including size, including 4 in the cooperative IPSs and 12 in the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe IPS:
Of the above, Eurex Clearing AG meets the criteria for SI designation, but has been classified by the ECB as a LSI by special derogation together with a handful of other financial market infrastructures.

Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe

In addition to the above-listed 8 SIs and 12 high-impact LSIs, the ECB list included 336 LSIs that were members of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe IPS. Among these, the following ones are specifically documented on Wikipedia in English:

Cooperative Financial Group

In addition to the above-listed 3 SIs and 4 high-impact LSIs, the ECB list also included 653 entities that were members of the German Cooperative Financial Group IPS. Among these, the following ones are specifically documented on Wikipedia in English:

Other domestic German LSIs

The 95 other domestic German LSIs are listed below, based on the ECB list of supervised entities as of.

Non-euro-area-controlled LSIs

Based on the same ECB list, the following 35 LSIs were controlled by financial groups based outside the euro area. They include 22 subsidiaries, and 13 branches of banks based in the European Economic Area but outside of the euro area.

Third-country branches

As of, the following banking groups established outside the EEA had branches in Germany :

Public credit institutions

The following European, national and sub-national public public credit institutions are based in Germany but do not hold a banking license under EU law and are therefore outside the remit of European banking supervision:

European level

Federal level

State level

Defunct banks

Selected former German banks are listed below in chronological order of establishment, divided into three categories.

Former central banks & banks of issue

The Hamburger Bank had attributes of a central bank despite not issuing its own paper money. In the 19th century, Germany's political fragmentation led to the establishment of numerous banks of issue until monetary unification in the 1870s. Even after that, multiple banks kept their issuance privilege until the Reichsbank eventually acquired a monopoly in 1935.
  • Hamburger Bank
  • Preußische Bank
  • Lübecker Privatbank, bank of issue 1856-1875
  • Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank, bank of issue until 1874
  • Leipziger Bank, bank of issue 1839-1875
  • Bank für Süddeutschland
  • Anhalt-Dessauische Landesbank, bank of issue 1847-1875
  • Darlehnskassen, intermittent issuing institutions
  • Chemnitzer Stadtbank, bank of issue until end-1890
  • Homburger Bank, bank of issue 1855-1876
  • , bank of issue until 1876
  • Rostocker Bank, bank of issue until 1877
  • Braunschweigische Bank, bank of issue until 1906
  • Weimarische Bank, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Frankfurter Bank, bank of issue until 1901
  • Kölnische Privatbank, bank of issue until 1887
  • Geraer Bank, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Bremer Bank, bank of issue 1857-1889
  • Commerz-Bank in Lübeck, bank of issue until 1886
  • Danziger Privat-Actien-Bank, bank of issue 1857-1890
  • Hannoversche Bank, bank of issue until 1889
  • Magdeburger Privatbank, bank of issue until end-1890
  • Mitteldeutsche Creditbank, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Niedersächsische Bank zu Bückeburg, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Privatbank zu Gotha, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Thüringische Bank, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Sächsische Bank, bank of issue until 1935
  • Kommunalständische Bank für die preußische Oberlausitz, bank of issue until end-1875
  • Leipziger Kassenverein, bank of issue until 1890
  • Badische Bank, bank of issue until 1935
  • Württembergische Notenbank, bank of issue until 1935
  • Bayerische Notenbank
  • Reichsbank
  • Deutsche Rentenbank, bank of issue until 1924
  • Bank deutscher Länder
  • Deutsche Notenbank
  • Staatsbank der DDR
The Oldenburgische Landesbank was a private bank of issue from establishment in 1868 until end-1875. The Deutsche Golddiskontbank and Liquidity Consortium Bank had purposes related with monetary policy even though they were not themselves money-issuing or central banks.

Other defunct banks headquartered in present-day German territory

Several of these banks came to an end in 1945 when the Soviet Forces in Germany decided to terminate existing banking activity in their occupation zone.

Defunct German banks headquartered outside present-day Germany

This list includes former banks of issue as well as commercial banks, in the former eastern territories of Germany and its temporary conquests during World War I and World War II.