The Tiroler Sparkasse Bankaktiengesellschaft Innsbruck (known as Tiroler Sparkasse) is an Austrian

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive interest. Savings banks ha ...

that focuses on private customers,

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

s and small and medium-sized enterprises in the Tyrol region. The bank was founded in 1822 and is part of the Austrian

Sparkassengruppe Österreich The ''Sparkassengruppe Österreich'' () brings together all savings banks () in Austria. Tracing its origins to 1819, it serves around 4 million customers in 797 branches with more than 15,500 employees, with a customer share in Austria around 31 ...

. it held a leading position in its regional market with a market share of around 30% for private customers and almost 50% for corporate customers in the region with around 153,500 customers. It is a member of the Austrian Savings Banks Liability Association, which guarantees the payment of customer deposits in excess of the legally guaranteed amount of €100,000.

History

In 1822, during economically difficult years, Count Chotek and ''Felix Adam von Riccabona'' founded the "Sparkasse zu Innsbruck" as the first financial institution in

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

and the second oldest association savings bank in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The aim was to encourage the building up of savings and financial provision for broad sections of the population and to use savings for economic development in the region. The city of Innsbruck provided the first business premises in the former town hall next to the city tower. In 1822 the Sparkasse became a general savings institution and could thus be used by all sections of the population. Until then, this only applied to the socially and economically disadvantaged. In 1866 the institute moved to the Magistratsgebäude at Pfarrplatz 2, today's Domplatz. In 1877, the Sparkasse moved into its later property in Erlerstraße. In 1885 it was given the statutory name "Sparkasse der Stadt Innsbruck". The first

World Savings Day The World Savings Day was established on October 31, 1924, during the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks) in Milan, Italy. The Italian Professor Filippo Ravizza declared this day the "International Saving Da ...

was held in 1925. In the same year the first exchange office was opened in Maria-Theresien-Straße. The main branch of the ''Tiroler Bauernsparkasse'' in Innsbruck merged with the Sparkasse of the city of Innsbruck in 1943. The ''Sparefroh'' was "born" in 1955. One year later the first branch was opened in Pradl. In 1974 a new seven-storey building was erected on ''Sparkassenplatz'' and was given the official address ''Sparkassenplatz 1''. In 1975 it merged with the ''Sparkasse der Stadt Solbad

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

''. The Sparkasse now bore the name ''Sparkasse der Stadt Innsbruck mit Sparkasse der Stadt Hall''. The first ATM in Tyrol was opened in 1980 in the Sparkassen Arcade. In 1982 the institute changed its name to ''Sparkasse Innsbruck-Hall, Tiroler Sparkasse''. One year later the right to use the Tyrolean coat of arms was granted. Tirolinvest KAG was founded in 1988 as Tirol's only fund company. In 1990 the entire banking business of the Sparkasse was transferred to ''Tiroler Sparkasse Bankaktiengesellschaft Innsbruck''. ''Erste Bank'' became the majority owner of Tiroler Sparkasse in 2001. Tiroler Sparkasse thus became part of ''

Erste Group Erste Group Bank AG (shortened version Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider. It is one of the largest financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe serving more than 16 million clients in over 2,000 branches in seven ...

'' (with around 15.7 million customers). The Innsbruck branch of ''Die Zweite Sparkasse'' was opened in 2007. ''Tirolinvest KAG'' was merged with ''Erste-Sparinvest Kapitalanlagegesellschaft m.b.H.'' in 2017.

Locations

In addition to its head office at Sparkassenplatz, the Tiroler Sparkasse has 26 branches and 25 self-service and ATM locations (mainly in the districts of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

-Stadt and Innsbruck-Land) as well as the ''wohn²Center'' at ''Sparkassenplatz 1''.

Ownership structure

On 31 December 2018 ''Erste Bank'' held a 74.98756% majority interest in Tiroler Sparkasse Bankaktiengesellschaft Innsbruck. The remaining 25.01244% are owned by the private foundation of ''Sparkasse Innsbruck-Hall'', Tiroler Sparkasse.

References

{{Authority control Banks of Austria 1822 establishments in the Austrian Empire Corporate finance Companies based in Innsbruck