Westdeutsche Landesbank was a prominent exemplar of the German Landesbanken before collapsing in 2007-2012
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".
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]
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:
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
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![Former Bukowinaer Landesbank in Chernivtsi, 2010[2]](/en/File:HerrenGasse_181.jpg)
