The Südwestbank AG (stylized as SÜDWESTBANK) is a

regional bank A regional bank is a depository institution, such as a bank, savings and loan, or credit union, which is larger than a community bank and operates below the state level, but not so large that it would operate either nationally or internationall ...

in the southwest of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

which is located in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. The bank operates in the form of a

stock corporation A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholder ...

and looks after about 100,000 private and corporate customers in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

. It was acquired in 2017 by Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K..

History

The Südwestbank was originally founded in 1922 as ''Württembergische Landwirtschaftsbank GmbH'' in Stuttgart. In 1954 it was continued as ''Südwestdeutsche Landwirtschaftsbank GmbH''. From the year 1964, it traded as ''Südwestbank GmbH''. By changing the legal form in 1970 it became the Südwestbank AG. Organizationally, the bank was connected to the ''

Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken The National Association of German Cooperative Banks (, BVR) is the umbrella association for the German Cooperative Financial Group. Its origins go back to 1864 as . As of 2015 it had 1,021 members, which represents all the cooperative banks i ...

'' (BVR). The main owner was the

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 700 cooperative banks and their around 7,200 branch offices. Within that Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, w ...

. In 2004, ''Santo Holding GmbH'' of Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann bought DZ Bank's stake of 89.6%. As a result, the Südwestbank left the union of cooperative banks and joined the ''

Bundesverband deutscher Banken The ''Bundesverband deutscher Banken'' (BdB, also branded as Bankenverband and in English as Association of German Banks) is the representative body of profit-oriented banks in Germany and a key lobby group for Germany's financial sector. The Bd ...

'' and its

deposit insurance Deposit insurance, deposit protection or deposit guarantee is a measure implemented in many countries to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due. Deposit insurance or deposit ...

fund on 1 January 2005. In spring 2008, its CEO was dismissed and the business strategy was redirected toward wealthy private customers. At the beginning of 2010, ''Santo Holding GmbH'' sold its 94% stake to ''Santo Vermögensbeteiligung GmbH''. The equity capital of Südwestbank more than doubled at the end of 2013 as a result of an equity contribution of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

386 million. On 25 August 2016, Südwestbank received permission from the '' Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht'' to issue debenture bonds. From now on, the independent

private bank Private banks are banks owned by either the individual or a general partner(s) with limited partner(s). Private banks are not incorporated. In any such case, creditors can look to both the "entirety of the bank's assets" as well as the entire ...

was also a Debenture bond bank and one of the only four percent of German banks that are Debenture bond banks. In 2017, the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n bank BAWAG P.S.K. took over the Südwestbank from the previous owners

Andreas Andreas () is a name derived from the Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anēr'', with genitive ἀνδρός ''andros'', which means "man". See the article on Andrew for more information. The Scandinavian name is earliest attested as antreos in a runeston ...

and Thomas Strüngmann. The Südwestbank is set to serve as a platform to Germany to further expand Bawag P.S.K.

Subsidiaries

Südwestbank AG is the owner of ''SWB Treuhand GmbH'' and ''Vertiva Family Office GmbH''. ''Vertiva'' is dedicated to the management of private and corporate assets in

German-speaking German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

countries. At the beginning of 2015, Südwestbank founded another subsidiary, ''SWB Immowert GmbH'', which specialized in the acquisition of real estate as a stable investment.

Product partners

The Südwestbank works with a variety of product partners, including: ''

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

'', ''Allianz Global Investors'', ''Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall'', ''Dr. Ing. Ellwanger & Kramm'', ''equinet'', ''Flossbach von Storch'', '' GEFA Bank'', ''Kloepfel Consulting'', ''MIBAV Consulting'', '' Münchener Hypothekenbank'', ''R + V Versicherung'', ''Spitzmüller'', ''Süddeutsche Krankenversicherung'', ''Targo Commercial Finance'', ''

Union Investment Union Asset Management Holding AG () is the Investment banking, investment arm of the DZ Bank, DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Frankfurt. Trading in open-end f ...

'', ''UVW Leasing'', ''WL Bank'', ''Württembergische Lebensversicherung''. Since 1 April 2004, the Südwestbank has been a member of the

CashPool CashPool is a cooperation of a multitude of smaller or virtual German private banks, in which they mutually waive ATM usage fees for their customers. It is not an interbank network but uses the pre-existing German ATM or Maestro/ Cirrus netwo ...

with over 3,000 ATMs in Germany.

Technology

The Südwestbank AG is affiliated to the cooperative data center of Fiducia & GAD IT AG and uses its software agree as its core banking system.

References

External links

www.suedwestbank.de Official Website
{{Authority control Banks of Germany Cooperative banks of Germany Corporate finance Companies based in Stuttgart Banks established in 1922 German companies established in 1922