Postbank (; full name: Postbank – eine Niederlassung der Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, ) is a

branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

for

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 (corporate ...

, 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 Mergers and acquisitions, merger or acquisition. A demerger can take place through a cor ...

of the postal savings division of

Deutsche Bundespost The (, ) 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 1980s, the staff was reduced to roughly 543,20 ...

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 Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

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 (, ) is a brand of the DHL Group (listed as ), used for its domestic mail services in Germany. The services offered under the brand are those of a traditional mail service, making the brand the successor of the former state-owned mail monopoly ...

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

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

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

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 (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

. Postbank then extended operations, and engaged in

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

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 protect ...

and homes savings. In 1999,

became the owner of Postbank. In that same year, Postbank acquired DSL Bank 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 Postbank took over the transaction banking of

and

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...

. 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 investm ...

. 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
{{Authority control Banks of Germany Companies based in Bonn Banks established in 1990 1990 establishments in Germany Postal savings system German corporate subsidiaries