Postbank is the

retail banking Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking serv ...

division of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York St ...

, which was formed from the

demerger A demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition. A demerger can take place through a spin-off by distributed or t ...

of the

postal savings Postal savings systems provide depositors who do not have access to banks a safe and convenient method to save money. Many nations have operated banking systems involving post offices to promote saving money among the poor. History In 1861, ...

division of

Deutsche Bundespost The Deutsche Bundespost (German federal post office) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 19 ...

in 1990. Since May 2018, it operates as a brand of Deutsche Bank's retail arm. It serves 13 million customers in around 1,000 branches and 700 advisory centers.

History

The ''Postscheckdienst'' was introduced in 1909 by the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (lit. German Realm, German Empire, from german: Deutsches Reich, ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty ...

establishing accounts for payment transactions by mail and linking postal and banking services in German states. In 1990, following the German Postal Services Restructuring Act (''Poststrukturgesetz'') of 1989, the German Postal Service (

) was divided into three companies,

Deutsche Post The Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies ...

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

and Postbank. Later that year, Deutsche Post Postbank of the former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

was merged with Postbank. From 1990 to 1997, Günter Schneider was chairman of the board. The first board of Postbank consisted of Günter Schneider, Rudolf Bauer and Bernhard Zurhorst. On 1 January 1995, following the new postal reform legislation (''Gesetze zur Postreform II'') of 1994, Postbank became an independent,

joint stock company A joint-stock company 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). Shareholders a ...

. Postbank then extended operations, and engaged in

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and homes savings. In 1999,

became the owner of Postbank. In that same year, Postbank acquired

DSL Bank Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

by the sale of the government's shares. Postbank subsidiary ''easytrade'' began offering on-line brokerage services in 2000. Postbank purchased BHF (USA) Holdings Inc. in 2001. By 2003, Postbank had 11.5 million customers, more than any other bank in Germany. On 1 January 2004 the postal bank took over the transaction banking of

and

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG was a German bank and was based in Frankfurt. It was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009. History 19th century The Dresdner Bank was established on 12 Novembe ...

. From then on Postbank executed the clearing and settlement of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank's payment transactions. This agreement strengthened the bank’s new business field "Transaction Bank" in the apron of the announced

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

. The IPO of Postbank on 23 June 2004 was the largest stock market launch in Germany for the past 2 years. Deutsche Post retained a controlling stake of 50% plus one share. On 25 October 2005 Postbank announced its intention to acquire a 76.4 percent stake of the home financing specialist, Beamten-Heimstättenwerk (BHW). With the acquisition of BHW Deutsche Postbank became Germany’s leading financial services provider for retail customers. On 1 January 2006 the purchase of BHW Holding by Deutsche Postbank was concluded. Beyond that Deutsche Postbank took over 850 branches from Deutsche Post. Along with the change in ownership, around 9,600 employees switched employer, bringing Postbank's workforce to over 25,000 employees. In September 2008, 30% of Postbank was sold to

for €2.8 billion. In October 2010, Postbank put its Indian finance business up for sale. Deutsche Bank gained a majority stake in the firm through a

tender offer In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...

completed in December 2010, and exercised its option to acquire the remainder of Deutsche Post's holding in 2012. In the end, the total purchase cost Deutsche Bank €6 billion. Since May 2018, Postbank has been merged with the '' DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank'' as a subsidiary of

. Employees' union officials of Postbank announced to stage a strike by some employees on 31 January 2022, demanding higher wage rates in order to meet the rising inflation.

References

External links

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Useful information about Deutsche Postbank in English
{{Authority control Banks of Germany Deutsche Post Companies based in Bonn Banks established in 1990 1990 establishments in Germany Postal savings system German corporate subsidiaries