BASEL II: PROBLEMS AND USAGE

Although the number of commercial banks varied during the past years,
their market share increased gradually, from 22 percent in 1987 to 30 percent
in 2007. This increase in the market share primarily stems from the big
commercial banks.
The second and third group of commercial banks include regional
banks and branches of foreign banks. The former mainly operate on a regional
level and account for around nine percent of total assets, whereas the
latter do not play a significant role in the German banking industry with
their market share of two percent in 2007.
2.2. Savings Banks
Savings banks emerged in the beginning of the 19th century with the
aim of making savings accounts accessible for poor people. Savings banks
became very widespread and amounted to around 2,700 banks in the beginning
of the 20th century. After the German reunification, savings banks
have experienced a consolidation wave. As depicted in table 2, the number
of banks shrank from 736 in 1992 to 538 in 2002. The market share, however,
did not change substantially within this period, being only two percent
lower than in 1987.
1987
1992
1997
2002
2007
Banks Total
Total Assets of Savings Banks
Savings
Banks
Local Savings
Banks
Table 2
Central
Savings Banks
N 4,468 598 586 12
TA 1,917 716 301 415
MS 100 37 15 22
N 4,407 736 723 13
TA 3,043 1,110 491 619
MS 100 36 16 20
N 3,414 611 598 13
TA 4,658 1,717 852 865
MS 100 37 18 19
N 2,365 538 520 14
TA 6,452 2,322 1,324 998
MS 100 36 21 15
N 2,016 458 446 12
TA 7,626 2,632 1,587 1,045
MS 100 35 21 14
N – number of banks, TA – total assets in billions of euro, MS – market share.
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