A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. They exist in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and formerly in Ireland and several Commonwealth countries, including South Africa as mutual banks. They are similar to credit unions, but rather than promoting thrift and offering unsecured and business loans, the purpose of a building society is to provide home mortgages to members. Borrowers and depositors are society members, setting policy and appointing directors on a one-member, one-vote basis. Building societies often provide other retail banking services, such as current accounts, credit cards and personal loans. The term "building society" first arose in the 19th century in Great Britain from cooperative savings groups.
Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a Nordic financial services group operating in northern Europe with headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian banks of Merita Bank, Nordbanken, Unidanmark, and Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse that took place between 1997 and 2001. The Nordic countries are considered Nordea's home market, having finalised the sales of their Polish bank in 2014, Baltic operations in 2019 and completed the exit from Russia in early 2022 following a 2019 decision to close the business there. Nordea is listed on Nasdaq Nordic exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Stockholm and Nordea ADR is listed in the US.
The Bank of Finland is the Finnish member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Finland from 1812 to 1998, issuing the markka. It views itself as the fourth oldest surviving central bank in the world, after Sweden's Riksbank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of France.
Argenta is a bank based in Antwerp, Belgium that also operates in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It was Belgium's sixth-biggest bank in 2020, after BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC Group, Belfius, ING Group, and Crelan.
DZ Bank AG is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 800 cooperative banks and their around 8,500 branch offices. Within the German Cooperative Financial Group, which is one of Germany's largest private sector financial service organizations and manages assets of around 1.200 trillion euros, DZ Bank functions both as a central institution and as a corporate and investment bank.
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg is a universal bank and the Landesbank for some Federal States of Germany. As of 2018, it is Germany's biggest state-backed landesbank lender.
Bayerische Landesbank, also known as BayernLB, is a publicly regulated bank based in Munich, Germany and one of the six Landesbanken. It is 75% owned by the Free State of Bavaria and 25% owned by the Sparkassenverband Bayern, the umbrella organization of Bavarian Sparkassen. With a balance of €285,70 billion and 7,703 employees, it is the seventh-largest financial institution in Germany.
The Addiko Bank is an Austrian banking group with numerous cross-border activities in the Alps-Adriatic region. The group is active in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. However, the bank itself did not have a banking license in Austria, which now owned by Austrian Anadi Bank, another bank that was spun off Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG.
Bankinter, S.A., is a Spanish financial services company headquartered in Madrid. It has been listed on the Bolsa de Madrid since 1972, and is part of the Ibex35 Index. It was founded in 1965 as an industrial bank through a joint venture between Banco Santander and Bank of America.
De Volksbank is a Dutch retail bank offering financial products to both companies and individuals. Prior to a 2017 restructuring, it was called SNS Bank, which remains its major brand name. It became a subsidiary of SNS Reaal in 1997 when the holding company bought the insurance company Reaal. The bank and its parent were rescued by the Dutch government in 2013 and have been state owned since then. In 2016, SNS Bank was the fourth-largest bank in the Netherlands in terms of total assets.
S-Bank Plc is a Finnish retail bank and wealth manager. It is owned by SOK Corporation and the regional co-operatives in the S-Group, a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation.
Aktia Bank Plc is a Finnish asset manager, bank and life insurer with offices in the Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Vaasa and Oulu regions.
Bank of Åland Plc is a Finnish commercial bank and banking group with over 700 employees and operations in Åland, Finland and Sweden. The bank was founded in 1919 and was listed on the stock exchange in 1942. Its president and CEO is Peter Wiklöf.
OP Financial Group is one of the largest financial companies in Finland. It consists of 180 cooperative banks and their central organization. "OP" stands for "osuuspankki" in Finnish, literally meaning "cooperative bank". The financial group has over 2 million customer-owners, offering retail and commercial banking services all over Finland, as well as insurance services.
Unicaja is a Spanish savings bank based in Málaga and chartered as a caja de ahorros providing retail banking services. The banks full name is Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Ronda, Cádiz, Almería, Málaga y Antequera after the names of all the merged entities and the mount of piety structure.
Kutxabank is a Spanish bank founded and based in Bilbao. It was officially created on 1 January 2012 out of the merger of three Basque financial institutions operating in their respective provinces: Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK), based in Bilbao; Gipuzkoa Donostia Kutxa (Kutxa), based in San Sebastián; and Caja Vital Kutxa (Vital) based in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Banca Popolare di Sondrio S.C.p.A. (BPSO) is an Italian bank based in Sondrio, Lombardy. The company is included in FTSE Italia Mid Cap Index. 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.
Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG is a German bank that specialises in real estate and public sector financing. As of 2016, it is a constituent of the SDAX trading index of German small-cap companies. It is based in Garching in Bayern, a suburb of Munich. Pfandbriefe is a German term for bonds issued in property financing.
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.
EUR 18.7 million (2006)