Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG () is a

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingd ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, active abroad with subsidiaries in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

and China. It has more than 10 million customers. Shareholders are the cooperative central bank

DZ Bank 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 la ...

(96.8 percent) in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

and around 600 cooperative banks. The building society has its headquarters in the city of

Schwäbisch Hall Schwäbisch Hall (; "Swabian Hall"; from 1802 until 1934 and colloquially: ''Hall'' ) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg located in the valley of the Kocher river, the longest tributary (together with its headwater Lein) of the ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. The cooperative banks (

Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken The German Cooperative Financial Group, german: Genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, sometimes referred to in English as "Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Cooperative Financial Network", is a major cooperative banking network ...

, Sparda-Bank, etc.) have around 11,000 branches and approximately 3,400 employees.

History

Today's Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG was founded in 1931 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

as a German building society AG, construction savings and debt relief fund by members of the local Chamber of Crafts. After the transfer of the business office to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in 1936, the German Central Cooperative Fund and most of the Central Commercial Funds participated in the company, which was meanwhile called ''Gesellschaft für zweitstelligen Grundkredit'', ''Deutscher Bausparer Aktiengesellschaft''. In 1941 the ''

Volksbank There are several banks that operate under the name "Volksbank" (Afrikaans, Dutch and German for "people's bank"). There are also 1,099 independent local Volksbanken in Germany. They are completely separate from the Austrian Association of Volksb ...

s'' followed, since then it was called ''Bausparkasse der deutschen Volksbanken''. The company headquarter was bombed out in 1943, 1944 the operation together with the rescued business documents was moved to Schwäbisch Hall. The decision to retain this city as a corporate seat was made in 1947. At that time the creation of new housing was important, which was promoted from 1952 with the housing subsidy by the state. Since the conversion into the common mortgage lending institute of the ''Volksbanks'' and the ''Raiffeisenverband'' in 1956, the enterprise bears the name Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG. 1970 the last name changes to Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG, ''Bausparkasse der Volksbanken und Raiffeisebanken'' took place. As a result of the fall of the Berlin wall, the company was able to extended its business to the new federal states in 1990. The legal change in the year 1991 caused that for the first-time own holding companies could be established abroad. Branches in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and subsidiaries in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and the China were founded.

Core business areas of the building society Schwäbisch Hall

* Mortgage lending * Construction Financing * Cross selling * Foreign countries

Subsidiary companies

* Schwäbisch Hall Kreditservice GmbH * Schwäbisch Hall Facility Management GmbH * Schwäbisch Hall Training GmbH

Key figures

References

External links

Webpräsenz der Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG
* {{Authority control Banks of Germany Cooperative banks of Germany Corporate finance 1931 establishments in Germany Banks established in 1931