Berlin seat of DSGV, the central entity of the Sparkassen-FinanzgruppeBerlin seat of BVR, the central entity of the German Cooperative Financial GroupDeutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt, seat of Deutsche BankWestendstrasse 1 in Frankfurt, seat of DZ BankCommerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, seat of CommerzbankTaunusturm in Frankfurt, seat of J.P. Morgan SELBBW head office, StuttgartMarienturm in Frankfurt, seat of Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SEHypo-Haus in Munich, seat of UniCredit Bank GmbHBayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) head office, MunichMain Tower in Frankfurt, seat of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba)LEO building in Frankfurt, seat of ING DiBaOmniturm in Frankfurt, seat of Morgan Stanley Europe Holding SENorddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (NORD/LB) head office in HannoverGroße Gallusstraße 14 in Frankfurt, seat of DekaBank
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 the German banking system is more open to cross-border banking operations than peers outside of the EU.
Germany stands out for the uniquely extensive development of its public banking sector,[6]:16 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 (German: Sparkassen) during the 19th century.[7]:28 Germany was also where a cooperative banking sector flourished first under leaders such as Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen.[8] 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 (Regionalbanken), as well as non-listed private banks (Privatbanken). 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 (SIs) and less significant institutions (LSIs), with SI/LSI designations updated regularly by the European Central Bank (ECB). Significant institutions are directly supervised by the ECB using joint supervisory teams that involve the national competent authorities (NCAs) 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.[9] In Germany's case, the NCA is the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known by the German shorthand BaFin.[10]
The EU framework provides for the possibility of institutional protection scheme that bind together networks of local banks into idiosyncratic risk-sharing arrangements.[11] Of the EU's eight IPSs as of 2022,[12]:12 two are in Germany, namely the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe (SFG) 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 (Förderbanken).
Significant institutions
As of 1 September 2025, the ECB had the following 26 banking groups based in Germany in its list of significant institutions.[13] 11 of the 26 belonged to the two German IPSs, and 6 were German affiliates of global banking groups headquartered outside of the EU (respectively Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and UBS):
Aareal Bank (under Luxembourg holding entity Atlantic Lux HoldCo Sàrl)
A study published in 2024 assessed that the largest bank by assets in Germany (as opposed to total consolidated assets) at end-2023 was Deutsche Bank (€1.1 trillion, including Postbank and Norisbank) followed by DZ Bank (€619 bn), Commerzbank (€460 bn), J.P. Morgan (€421 bn), LBBW (€333 bn), Goldman Sachs (€291 bn), UniCredit (€283 bn), BayernLB (€273 bn), Helaba (€202 bn), ING (€169 bn), Morgan Stanley (€107 bn), NORD/LB (€104 bn), and DekaBank (€85 bn).[14]:27 Deutsche Bank has been consistently designated as Global systemically important bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board, including in the update of November 2025.[15]
This ranking includes euro area banks based outside Germany that have large German subsidiaries such as UniCredit via HypoVereinsbank and ING via ING DiBa; other cases are Santander via Santander Consumer Bank Germany, and Crédit Mutuel via Targobank. It does not feature banking groups that operate in Germany through branches and do not disclose the corresponding national branch assets, such as BNP Paribas[14]:32 whose branch operates its German brands Consorsbank and DAB BNP Paribas,[16] 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,[17]:4 and the Cooperative Financial Group disclosed consolidated assets of €1.6 trillion.[18] Considered as banking groups, the SFG and Cooperative Financial Group therefore qualify as the two largest in Germany.
Less significant institutions
As of 1 September 2025, 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. Of these, 26 were designated by the ECB as "high-impact" on the basis of several criteria including size,[13] 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.[13]
Other German LSIs documented on Wikipedia in English include:
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:
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.[19] 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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
