Landesbanken
The Landesbanken are mostly owned by the regional Savings banks through its regional association and the respective federal state. After several mergers and acquisitions, there are seven Landesbanken-Groups left: BayernLB, Norddeutsche Landesbank (Nord/LB), HSH Nordbank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Landesbank Berlin (LBB), Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen - Girozentrale (Helaba), WestLB. Bremer Landesbank Kreditanstalt Oldenburg - Girozentrale belongs with a share of 92,5% to the Nord/LB-Group. The rest is owned by the federal state of Bremen. The Sachsen LB and the Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz (LRP) since April 2008 are subsidiaries of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). Until 21.06.2010, the BayernLB was majority shareholder of the Landesbank Saar (SaarLB) with a share of 75,1%. Since June 2010, the Saarland has become shareholder with a stake of 35,2% and the BayernLB reduced its share to 49,9%. The remaining 14,9% are held by the Sparkassen through its regional confederation.
The regional banks / clearing houses are the central banks of a savings bank association and act as the "main bank" of the states. They are also local banks, mortgage banks and general commercial banks. Their duties and power is codified in the individual country banking laws of the Länder (Landesbankengesetze). The specific tasks for the savings banks include the central clearing for cashless payments and liquidity funding for the regional savings banks. They also provide many services for the savings banks in the region in securities and cross-country businesses. In contrast to savings banks, they are doing "wholesale-banking" instead of retail-banking. With combined total assets of EUR 1,620 trillion as of December 2010, the 7 Landesbanken-Groups employ some 44.000 people.
DekaBank with its subsidiaries is the central asset manager of the German Savings Bank Finance Group. Based in Frankfurt and Berlin it provides asset management services for the Sparkassen and the Landesbanken and their customers. With managed fund assets of about € 155 billion, approximately five million customer deposits and group locations in Luxembourg and Switzerland, the DekaBank Group is one of the largest asset managers in Germany. DekaBank's roots date back to the year 1918, when Deutsche Girozentrale (DGZ) was founded. Deka as an investment company was founded in 1956 (17.08.1956) by DGZ with a share of 23% an 11 other regional Landesbanken. Today's DekaBank was created in 1999 by a merger of DGZ and Deka.
Until the 8. June 2011, DekaBank has been owned by the German Savings Banks and Giro Association Landesbanken itselfves grouped their shares in the GLB GmbH & Co.OHG, who has hold the DekaBank shares. On 7. April 2011, the Savings Banks bought the 50% stake from the landesbanken for a price of EUR 2.3 billion to become sole owner of the DekaBank. The acquisition was closed on the 8. June 2011 and DekaBank became fully, directly owned by the savings banks.
3,700 people throughout the group work in one of the 3 business divisions AMK (Asset Management Capital Markets), AMI (Asset Management Real Estate Business), C&M (Corporates and Markets), the sales division or one of the corporate centers.
Read more about this topic: German Public Bank, The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe / German Savings Bank Finance Group