Volksbank

A Volksbank branch in Alswede (part of Volksbank Lübbecker Land eG)

There are several European banks that operate under the name "Volksbank" (German for "people's bank").

There are also 1,099 independent local Volksbanken in Germany. They are completely separate from the Austrian Group Volksbank. Volksbanken are also known as VB (the name has the same origin as VW Volkswagen - VOLK is the German word for people) or as VR (VR means Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken). The German association is one of the world's largest financial conglomerates and is both larger and more important than the Austrian Volksbanken-AG.

Germany - Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken

Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken e. V. (BVR)
Commercial Association
Industry Finance and Insurance
Founded 1840
Headquarters Berlin, Germany[1]
Products Financial Services
US$ 371,430 million interest income (2012)[2]
US$ 93,000 million (2012)
Number of employees
 159,750[3] in 13,211[4] branches (2012)
Website www.bvr.de

The "Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken" (Federal Association of Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken) is a consortium of 1,099[5] independent credit unions, which represents the banks as Germany's largest banking group in several marketing affairs and as service partner Genossenschaftliche Finanzgruppe Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken - Cooperative Financial Group.

The Genossenschaftliche Finanzgruppe is the only banking group which survived the financial crisis of 2007-08 without any state intervention.

Companies of the Genossenschaftliche Finanzgruppe

13 January 2013 robbery at Berliner Volksbank

On 13 January 2013 robbers stole goods from 100 private safe deposit boxes located in Steglitz, Berlin. In the official statement the police said that bank security officer noticed smoke coming from the deposit room on Monday morning (January 14). Next they found broken deposit boxes and a 30 m tunnel, the digging of which probably took a couple of weeks or even months. The tunnel (external pictures) was reportedly so well constructed that it had ceiling supports and was about 3 feet wide.[6] It connected the bank deposit and a nearby underground parking lot. Probably nobody noticed anything, because the parking lot was shielded by roulettes, and people thought that this part was under repair. There are some similarities between this robbery and the Baker Street robbery in London.[7]

Austria - Österreichische Volksbanken-Aktiengesellschaft

Österreichische Volksbanken-Aktiengesellschaft
Private
Industry Finance and Insurance
Founded 1850
Headquarters Vienna, Austria
Products Financial Services
Number of employees
 20,000 (2013)
Website www.volksbank.com
Volksbank in Vienna.

The "Österreichische Volksbanken-Aktiengesellschaft" (Limited liability company of Austrian Volksbanken) was founded in 1850 and is a retail banking group based in Vienna, Austria. It currently operates in Austria, Hungary, Romania and Malta.

The shareholders of Österreichische Volksbanken-AG ("AG" is the abbreviation for "Aktiengesellschaft", which means "company limited by shares") are:

After failing the European stress test in June 2011, the Österreichische Volksbanken-AG will not pay back the dividends, which also include the capital for participation of the state for the third consecutive year.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Volksbank.

Former subsidiaries of Volksbank, which have been sold to Sberbank of Russia: