DZ Bank AG is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 700 cooperative banks and their around 7,200 branch offices. Within that Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, which is one of Germany's largest private sector financial service organizations and manages assets of around 1.175 trillion euros, DZ Bank functions both as a central institution and as a corporate and investment bank.
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich A.G. (RZB) was a significant bank in Austria and the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group (RBG) until its merger into its subsidiary Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in 2017.
Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world.
The European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) is a European interest group representing cooperative banks in the European Union (EU) and five non-European countries. Established in 1970, the non-profit association "represents, promotes and defends" the common interests of its 27 member institutions and 2.500 cooperative banks regarding banking as well as cooperative legislation.
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management is a private university with a right to award doctorates, recognized under Hesse's Higher Education Act. The parent organization is the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Foundation. Frankfurt School has a second campus in HafenCity in Hamburg, a study center in Munich and a further study location in Düsseldorf, as well as offices in developing and emerging countries in cities such as Nairobi and Amman.
Beatrice Weder di Mauro is a Swiss economist who is currently Professor of economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Research Professor and Distinguished Fellow-in-residence at the Emerging Markets Institute of INSEAD Singapore, and senior fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER). Since 2018, she also serves as President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
The Raiffeisen Banking Group is a group of cooperative banks in Austria. The Austrian Raiffeisen banks are not consolidated under a single parent entity but are financially linked through a common institutional protection scheme and deposit guarantee scheme. The group's international operations, by contrast, are consolidated under Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).
The banking system in Austria plays a pivotal role in the country's economy, ensuring financial stability and providing essential services to both individuals and businesses. The Austrian banking system is characterized by a three-tier structure, consisting of joint-stock banks, savings banks (Sparkassen), and cooperative banks.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority is the Swiss government body responsible for financial regulation. This includes the supervision of banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers, as well as other financial intermediaries in Switzerland. FINMA's name and acronym are usually expressed in English so as to avoid the semblance of favouring any one of Switzerland's linguistic regions.
Union Investment is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Frankfurt.
The Bundesverband deutscher Banken is the representative body of profit-oriented banks in Germany and a key lobby group for Germany's financial sector.
The German Cooperative Financial Group is a major cooperative banking network in Germany that includes local banks named Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, the latter in tribute to 19th-century cooperative movement pioneer Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The Cooperative Group represents one of the three "pillars" of Germany's banking sector, the other two being, respectively, the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe of public banks, and the commercial banking sector represented by the Association of German Banks.
Axel Wieandt is a German manager. He has been serving as an honorary professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU) since 2005.
VZ Group is a Swiss financial service provider based in Zug. It is known by the name VZ Vermögenszentrum on the market. Since March 2007, the holding company VZ Holding Ltd is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The group employs around 1400 employees and managed client money amounting to CHF 45 billion as of 31 December 2023. VZ Vermögenszentrum has almost 40 locations in Switzerland, Germany, and England.
VBU Volksbank im Unterland is a German cooperative bank situated in Schwaigern, Baden-Wuerttemberg. The bank is a member of the German Cooperative Financial Group and of its representative association, the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, as well as of the Baden-Wuerttembergischer Genossenschaftsverband.
The Bank für Kirche und Diakonie eG - KD-Bank is a German credit institute in Dortmund that provides services mostly to institutions and individuals from the area of the Protestant church in Germany and its deaconry. It operates and has a legal structure of a cooperative.
The Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank eG is a cooperative bank headquartered in Düsseldorf.
The Südwestbank AG is a regional bank in the southwest of Germany which is located in Stuttgart. The bank operates in the form of a stock corporation and looks after about 100,000 private and corporate customers in Baden-Württemberg. It was acquired in 2017 by Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K..
The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe is a network of public banks that together form the largest financial services group in Germany and in all of Europe. Its name refers to local government-controlled savings banks that are known in German as Sparkasse, plural Sparkassen. Its activity is overwhelmingly located in Germany.
Münchener Hypothekenbank eG is a mortgage bank under the legal form of a registered cooperative. The shareholders of MünchenerHyp are other cooperative banks and approximately 60,000 cooperative customers. MünchenerHyp is a member of the Verband deutscher Pfandbriefbanken, of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (BVR) and of the Bavarian Cooperative Association. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.
