DSGV

The Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV, ) is the association of German savings banks (german: Sparkassen) and the apex entity of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, the European Union's second-largest financial services group (after BNP Paribas) with 2.4 trillion euros combined assets as of end-2021. Germany's savings banks, owned by local governments, play a major role in the country's economy, together operating some 15,860 branches and employing about 284,800 people.

History

German savings banks started organizing on a regional basis in the 1870s and early 1880s, e.g. the , est. 1881. The first national conference of savings banks (german: Deutscher Sparkassentag) was held in 1882. on , the first national umbrella organization was established as the in Dortmund. In 1892, it was agreed that the would be an "association of associations" whose members would not be individual savings banks, but rather regional associations thereof (german: Sparkassenverbände). By 1911, fifteen such had been established, covering all the country's savings banks.

on during World War I, the was established to coordinate the regional payments clearing houses or () that had appeared since 1908.

The DSGV was founded in 1924 by the merger of and , with seat in Berlin. It simultaneously absorbed the , a separate organization in Königsberg.

In 1947, after ''de facto'' separation from their Eastern German peers and central organization in East Berlin, the savings banks and regional associations in West Germany formed the () as their new national organization. In 1953, it was restructured as the , with head office in Bonn. Unlike the prior DSGV in Berlin, it was not a public corporation (german: Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts, abbreviated as ö.K.) but a non-profit association (german: eingetragener Verein, abbreviated e.V.).

Following German reunification, the DSGV relocated from Bonn to Berlin in 1999.

In April 2011, DSGV took control of DekaBank, buying a 50 percent stake from the Landesbanken, public sector banks such as HSH Nordbank, WestLB and that stumbled badly during the financial crisis. After years of subsidising the activities of the Landesbank sector, savings banks have been more assertive about ending the Wall Street-style ambitions of some of these regional lenders.Edward Taylor, Philipp Halstrick and Kathrin Jones (April 2, 2012)
Germany's DekaBank fires CEO after spat over bonus
''Reuters''.

Presidents

* (1924-1935)
* Johannes Heintze (1935-1945)
* (1947-1967)
* (1967-1972)
* (1972-1993)
* Horst Köhler (1993-1998)
* (1998-2006)
* (2006-2012)
* Georg Fahrenschon (2012-2017)
* (since 2018)

See also

* Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken

References

External links

Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband
*

{{Authority control

Banks of Germany
Banking organizations
Government-owned banks