The German Sparkassen: A Commentary and Case study - Civitas

6. The Public Mandate
This can be summarised as follows:
To ensure an appropriate and sufficient provision of money and credit services to all customers,
regardless of their personal income and financial situation, particularly to small
and medium-sized enterprises in the region.
To promote savings.
To strengthen competition based on the competitive requirements of their business area.
Surpluses remain with the Savings Bank and within the region: profits are used to increase
equity and for non-profit purposes (the public benefit principle).
The use of part of their surpluses for a broad range of social commitments (social, cultural,
art, sports, scientific/educational purposes).
How this works out in practice can be seen from the following (The graph has already been shown
in the Introduction, but the significance justifies it being shown again):
New Loans from the German Savings Banks to Companies
New Loans from the German and Savings the Self Banks Employed to Companies and the Self-Employed
80
Part I: A commentary
70
60
59.2
62.1
64.2
66.7
50
53.8
€ billions
40
30
36.1
41.5 42.5
20
10
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
This is the period that encompasses the world financial crisis; the figures contrast starkly with the
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