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