In German-speaking jurisdictions, ''Landesbank'' (plural ), , generally refers to a bank operating within a territorial subdivision () that has autonomy but not full sovereignty. It is occasionally translated as "provincial bank".

Austria-Hungary

In the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

under the rule of the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

, were government-sponsored banks established in some of the kingdoms and lands of the crown: * '' Landesbank des Königreichs Galizien und Lodomerien mit dem Grossherzogtum Krakau'', est. 1883 in Lemberg (now Lviv) for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the

Grand Duchy of Kraków The Grand Duchy of Kraków (german: Großherzogtum Krakau; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Krakowskie) was created after the incorporation of the Free City of Cracow into Austria on November 16, 1846. From 1846 to 1918 the title, Grand Duke of Kraków, w ...

* '' Landesbank des Königreiches Böhmen'', est. 1890 in Prague for the Kingdom of Bohemia * ''

Landesbank für Bosnien und Herzegowina The Landesbank für Bosnien und Herzegowina ( sh, Privilegovana zemaljska banka za Bosnu i Hercegovinu, ) was a bank established in Sarajevo in 1895 to help finance the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule. It kept op ...

'', est. 1895 in Sarajevo for

Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under Austro-Hungarian rule in 1878, when the Congress of Berlin approved the occupation of the Bosnia Vilayet, which officially remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Three decades later, in 1908, Austria-Hungary pr ...

* ''Bukowinaer Landesbank'', est. 1905 in Czernowitz (now

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the upp ...

) for the

Duchy of Bukovina The Duchy of Bukovina (german: Herzogtum Bukowina; ro, Ducatul Bucovinei; uk, Герцогство Буковина) was a constituent land of the Austrian Empire from 1849 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until 1918 ...

* ''Kroatische Landesbank'', est. 1909 in

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

for the

Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia ( hr, Kraljevina Hrvatska i Slavonija; hu, Horvát-Szlavónország or ; de-AT, Königreich Kroatien und Slawonien) was a nominally autonomous kingdom and constitutionally defined separate political nation with ...

* ''Krainische Landesbank'', est. 1912 in Laibach (now Ljubljana) for the Duchy of Carniola By contrast, Vienna's '' Länderbank'' (est. 1880) and its short-lived affiliate the (1881-1887) were private-sector initiatives. The name ''Landesbank'' also survives in regional entities of the Raiffeisen Group in Austria and, similarly, the

Raiffeisen Landesbank Südtirol – Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell'Alto Adige The Raiffeisen Landesbank Südtirol – Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell'Alto Adige is the central banking institute of the 39 independent Casse Rurali/Raiffeisenbank in South Tyrol. The central bank was related to Raiffeisenverband Südtirol (th ...

in the Italian region of South Tyrol. File:Львів, університет фізичної культури.jpg, Former in Lviv, 2015 File:Na příkopě 20 (Prague).jpg, Former in Prague, 2020 File:Sarajevo Finance ministry2.jpg, Former in Sarajevo, 2006 File:HerrenGasse 181.jpg, Former in

, 2010

Germany

Evolution over time

The current are the product of numerous episodes of development and consolidation starting in the 18th century, tracking the formation of Germany itself. In mid-1931, the default of the Landesbank der Rheinprovinz, following aggressive and uncontrolled expansion of its credit to German municipalities, was a major trigger of Germany's economic depression - unlike other Landesbanken such as the , which survived the episode largely unscathed. With the delineation of West Germany's between 1948 and 1957, the Landesbanks started acting as "house banks" of their respective , thus expanding into some of largest foreign issuers in Germany.

Northern Germany

* 1765: established in Braunschweig * 1840: established in Hanover * 1883: established in

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

* 1906: renamed , shortened in 1922 to * 1917: (LB Kiel) established in Kiel ** established in Hanover * 1918: established in Hanover * 1919: renamed * 1928: established in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

* 1938: and merge to form the ** established in Bremen ** (HLB) established in Hamburg * 1970: , , , , and merged to form NORD/LB * 1983: and merged to form (also known as Bremer Landesbank, or BLB) * 2003: and merged to form HSH Nordbank AG, with joint head offices in Hamburg and Kiel; spun out * 2017: BLB merged into NORD/LB * 2019: HSH Nordbank privatized and renamed Hamburg Commercial Bank; Landesbank role in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein taken up by NORD/LB File:Dankwardstraße 1 Braunschweig 20170921 001.jpg, building on in Braunschweig, head office of until 1966 File:BreLaBa-Bau1896.jpg, 1896 building of the , head office of in

from 1938 to the 2010s File:Office building Landeskreditanstalt Schiffgraben 6 Mitte Hannover Germany 01.jpg, Building at Schiffgraben 6 in Hanover, head office of from 1914 to 1970; later seat of the regional File:Gebäude der HSH-Nordbank.jpg, Building at Martendamm 4 in Kiel, head office of (1954-2003), HSH Nordbank (2003-2019), and Hamburg Commercial Bank (since 2019) File:Office Building Nord LB Georgsplatz.jpg, Building at Georgsplatz 2 in Hanover, head office of from 1958 to 1970, then of NORD/LB until 2002 File:Office Building Highrise Nord LB Georgsplatz 02a.jpg, High-rise wing of the former complex in Hanover File:Nord LB BS.jpg, Former building or in Braunschweig, head office of (1966-1970), Nord/LB (1970-2002), then (since 2008) File:Nord-LB office building Aegidientorplatz Hannover Germany.jpg, opened in 2002 in Hanover File:Bremer Landesbank 2016-08.jpg, Former Bremer Landesbank head office in Bremen, inaugurated in 2016 a year before the bank's absorption by NORD/LB

Western and central Germany

* 1819: established in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

, later renamed * 1832: established in Münster, sometimes referred to as the first Landesbank ** established in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

* 1840: established in Wiesbaden * 1847: established in Merseburg * 1854: established in Cologne; relocated in 1877 to Düsseldorf, and renamed in 1888 Landesbank der Rheinprovinz * 1890: renamed * 1914: becomes the payments clearing house (german: Girozentrale) for the savings banks in the , in substitution of the which had taken up that role in 1911 for the

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...

of Prussia * 1931: in distress, suspends payments despite emergency liquidity assistance from

Deutsche Girozentrale DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale is the central provider of asset management and capital market solutions of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. It is registered in both Frankfurt and Berlin, with main operational headquarters in Frankfurt. It traces its ...

, and the Reichsbank; clearing house role transferred to the Cologne branch of the * 1935: renamed * 1940: established in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

* 1941: Landesbank Saar (later known as SaarLB) established in

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

* 1943: formed from the 's takeover of * 1953: Kassel, and merged to form (Helaba) * 1958: The branch of the in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

merges with (in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

) and (in Mainz) to form (LRP) in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate * 1969: and merged to form

Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale WestLB AG (derived from ''Westdeutsche Landesbank'', i.e. "Western German state Bank") was a European commercial bank based in Düsseldorf, Germany which was mainly owned by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Landesbanks are a group of par ...

(WestLB) established with joint head offices in Düsseldorf and Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, and branches in Cologne,

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, Bielefeld, and

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

* 1972: WestLB starts developing a foreign branch network by opening in Luxembourg, followed by London in 1973 and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1975. * 1993: spun off from Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz * 2002: WestLB spins off a public development bank, NRW.Bank, converts itself into a joint-stock company as WestLB AG, and sells its private banking business to

Merck Finck Privatbankiers The private bank Merck Finck Privatbankiers AG, founded in 1870, is based in Munich and is also represented nationwide with a total of 16 locations. Since 2011, it has been a subsidiary of the Luxembourg bank KBL European Private Bankers (KLB), wh ...

* 2012: WestLB dismantled with assets transferred to Portigon Financial Services; Landesbank role in North Rhine-Westphalia taken up by Helaba File:Naspa2.JPG, Former in Wiesbaden File:Landesbank Rheinprovinz Theaterstraße.jpg, Former branch of in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

File:NRW-Bank Münster.JPG, Former Landesbank der Provinz Westfalen in Münster File:20110726Ursulinenstr2 Saarbruecken2.jpg, SaarLB head office in Saarbrücken, 2011 File:Landesbank Rheinland Pfalz.jpg, Former LRP head office in Mainz, 2015 File:Düsseldorf-Friedrichstadt WestLB.JPG, Building at Herzogstrasse 15 in Düsseldorf, built 1974-1986, head office of WestLB until 2012, now commercial complex File:MuensterLBSWest.jpg, WestLB branch in Münster from 1975 to 2002, later head office of the regional File:Dortmund Kampstraße 45 47 ehemalige WestLB Dortmund.jpg, WestLB branch in

from 1978 to 2010, repurposed in 2014 as File:Gebäude 01 klein.jpg, NRW.Bank head office in Düsseldorf File:Maintower Frankfurt.jpg, Helaba head office in Frankfurt, 2012

Baden-Württemberg

* 1818: established in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

as national savings bank of the Kingdom of Württemberg * 1870: established in Mannheim as the note-issuing bank of the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918. It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subs ...

* 1871: established in Stuttgart as the note-issuing bank of the Kingdom of Württemberg * 1916: established in Stuttgart, later renamed * 1924: established in

; renamed in 1932 * 1929: established in Mannheim * 1932: relocated from Mannheim to Karlsruhe * 1934: and deprived of their note-issuing role and repurposed as commercial entities; the latter renamed in 1935 ** and merged into entity based in Karlsruhe and named in 1935 * 1972: and merged into * 1975: and merged to form in Stuttgart, renamed in 1977 * 1978: , and merged to form (BW-Bank) in Stuttgart * 1988: and merged to form (SüdwestLB) in Stuttgart * 1999: and SüdwestLB merged with the commercial activities of to form

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) is a universal bank and the Landesbank for some Federal States of Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen). As of 2018, it is Germany's biggest state-backed landesbank lender. LBBW is a full-serv ...

(LBBW) in Stuttgart * 2005: BW-Bank merged into LBBW File:20180925Augustaanlage 33 Mannheim6.jpg, Former head office of in Mannheim, 2018 File:BW-Bank Heilbronn Allee.jpg, BW-Bank in

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. From the late Mid ...

, 2007 File:BW-Bank am Kleinen Schlossplatz Stuttgart 2013.jpg, BW-Bank in

, 2013 File:Landesbank Stuttgart AmHbf2.jpg, LBBW head office in Stuttgart, 2007

Bavaria

* 1884: established in Munich * 1914: founded, permanently established in 1917 in Nuremberg and relocated in 1920 in Munich * 1925: reorganized and renamed * 1949: renamed * 1972: and merged to form Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale (BayernLB) File:Brienner Str. 16 Muenchen-1.jpg, BayernLB head office in Munich, 2013 File:Löwe vor der BayernLB Brienner Straße München.jpg, Lion statue in front of BayernLB head office in Munich, 2009 File:Briennerstr. 18 Glasbrunnen Muenchen-4.jpg, Courtyard of BayernLB head office in Munich, 2014

Eastern Germany

* 1819: established in

* 1849: established in

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021).

* 1915: established in Magdeburg * 1922: established in Weimar * 1923: takes over the Landesbank in Rudolstadt and the * 1924: established, renamed in 1937 * 1928: and merged to form , with head office in Magdeburg * 1945: closed by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany * 1946: absorbed by * 1992: established in Leipzig, Saxony * 1993: integrated into

Landesbank Berlin Landesbank Berlin Holding (formerly ''Bankgesellschaft Berlin''; ) is a large commercial bank based in Berlin, Germany. It is the holding company of the Berliner Sparkasse and Landesbank. In 2007, LBB was taken over by the Deutscher Sparkassen- u ...

Investitionsbank Berlin The Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) is a development bank and central promotional institute of the state of Berlin. The aim of the funding is the Berlin economy and housing construction. The main task of IBB is business development of small and ...

* 2004: Investitionsbank Berlin spun off from Landesbank Berlin File:Herzogliche Landesbank in Altenburg.jpg, Former Herzogliche Landesbank in

, 2006 File:LandeskreditMeiningen.jpg, Former head office of , 2009 File:Löhrs Carré Leipzig.JPG, Former SachsenLB head office in Leipzig, 2007

Cross-regional consolidation

* 1992: takes up Landesbank role in Thuringia, and is renamed while keeping the shorthand name Helaba ** NORD/LB takes up Landesbank role in Saxony-Anhalt * 1993: NORD/LB takes up Landesbank role in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern * 2001: BayernLB acquires majority control of SaarLB * 2005: LRP merged into LBBW * 2008: SachsenLB merged into LBBW * 2010-2013: Saarland acquires control of SaarLB from BayernLB

Current German

The current are part of the

Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe The ''Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe'' ("Savings Banks Financial Group") 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 t ...

, one of the three pillars of Germany's banking system. Their business is predominantly wholesale banking, partly to serve local savings banks (german: Sparkassen). With a few exceptions, Landesbanken and Sparkassen are chartered by national and state banking laws to pursue a public purpose (german: öffentlicher Auftrag). As of late 2022, they are: *

(LBBW) in

, covering Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony *

Bayerische Landesbank Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB; Bavarian State Bank) 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 (indirectly via BayernLB Holding AG) and 25% owned by the ''S ...

(BayernLB) in Munich, covering Bavaria *

Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Helaba, short for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, is a commercial bank with core regions in Hesse and Thuringia, Germany offering financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and internat ...

(Helaba) in Frankfurt and

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

, covering Brandenburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Thuringia * Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) in Hanover, covering

, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein * Landesbank Saar (SaarLB) in

, covering Saarland File:Landesbank Baden-Württemberg logo.svg, Logo of LBBW File:Bayernlb-logo.svg, Logo of BayernLB File:Helaba Logo 2019.svg, Logo of Helaba File:Nord LB logo.svg, Logo of NORD/LB File:Landesbank Saar logo.svg, Logo of SaarLB Four other German institutions are named without playing the role of the above five within the public sector: *

(LBB) was converted into a joint-stock company (german: Aktiengesellschaft) in 2007, when the

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 Pariba ...

rescued it and took full ownership of its share capital; it is part of the

* is a local public savings bank, part of the

; its earliest predecessor was established in 1834 as , and was renamed in 1930 * , another local public savings bank within the

, is also occasionally referred to as because one of its predecessor entities was a local branch of , opened in

Birkenfeld Birkenfeld () is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde''. The town itself has approximately 7,000 inhabitants. Geography ...

in 1914 *

Oldenburgische Landesbank Oldenburgische Landesbank AG (OLB) is a private financial institution based in the northwest of Germany. Its headquarters are in Oldenburg. OLB was founded in 1869 by the Frankfurt bank Erlanger & Söhne with the privilege of issuing banknotes. ...

(OLB, est. 1869) has always been a private-sector bank, controlled since 2017 by

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

. File:Berlin, Mitte, Alexanderplatz, Alexanderhaus, Fassade Grunerstrasse 02.jpg, Landesbank Berlin head office in Berlin, 2009 File:Idar-Oberstein-Sparkasse1-Bubo.JPG, Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld in Idar-Oberstein, 2009 File:Hohenzollerische Landesbank Sigmaringen.jpg, Hohenzollerische Landesbank Kreissparkasse in Sigmaringen, 2015 File:Hauptsitz der Oldenburgischen Landesbank, Stau 15, Oldenburg.jpg,