Landesbank

Bank category in the German-speaking world

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

Austria-Hungary

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy, Landesbanken were government-sponsored banks established in some of the kingdoms and lands of the crown:^[1]

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
Landesbank des Königreiches Böhmen, est. 1890 in Prague for the Kingdom of Bohemia
Landesbank für Bosnien und Herzegowina, est. 1895 in Sarajevo for Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule
Bukowinaer Landesbank, est. 1905 in Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi) for the Duchy of Bukovina
Kroatische Landesbank, est. 1909 in Esseg (now Osijek) for the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
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 Ungarische Landesbank (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 in the Italian region of South Tyrol.

Former Galizische Landesbank in Lviv, 2015
Former Böhmische Landesbank in Prague, 2020
Former Bosnische Landesbank in Sarajevo, 2006
Former Bukowinaer Landesbank in Chernivtsi, 2010^[2]

Germany

The current Landesbanken are part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, 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).^[3] As of late 2022, they are:

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) in Stuttgart, covering Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony
Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) in Munich, covering Bavaria
Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) in Frankfurt and Erfurt, covering Brandenburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Thuringia
Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) in Hanover, covering Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein
Landesbank Saar (SaarLB) in Saarbrücken, covering Saarland

Logo of LBBW
Logo of BayernLB
Logo of Helaba
Logo of NORD/LB
Logo of SaarLB

Four other German institutions are named Landesbank without playing the role of the above five within the public sector:

Landesbank Berlin (LBB) was converted into a joint-stock company (German: Aktiengesellschaft) in 2007, when the DSGV rescued it and took full ownership of its share capital; it is part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe
Hohenzollerische Landesbank Kreissparkasse Sigmaringen [de] is a local public savings bank, part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe; its earliest predecessor was established in 1834 as Spar- und Leihkasse für das Fürstentum Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and was renamed Hohenzollerische Landesbank Spar- und Leihkasse in 1930
Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld [de], another local public savings bank within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, is also occasionally referred to as Birkenfelder Landesbank because one of its predecessor entities was a local branch of Oldenburgische Landesbank, opened in Birkenfeld in 1914
Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB, est. 1869) has always been a private-sector bank, controlled since 2017 by Apollo Global Management.^[4]

Landesbank Berlin head office in Berlin, 2009
Hohenzollerische Landesbank Kreissparkasse in Sigmaringen, 2015
Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld in Idar-Oberstein, 2009
Oldenburgische Landesbank in Oldenburg, 2010

Liechtenstein

The German name of the National Bank of Liechtenstein is Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG.

References

^ Ulrich Nachbaur (2008), "Die Hypothekenbank des Landes Vorarlberg 1897 bis 1925" (PDF), Montfort: 54
^ Bo Larsson (November 2014). "Czernowitz – Cernăuţi – Černivci" (PDF). Edgar Hauster. p. 24.
^ Richard Deeg (1999), Finance Capitalism Unveiled: Banks and the German Political Economy, University of Michigan Press, doi:10.3998/mpub.15451, ISBN 9780472109364, JSTOR 10.3998/mpub.15451
^ Stephan Kahl (9 February 2022). "Apollo-Backed German Lender OLB in Talks to Hire IPO Arrangers". Bloomberg.