Dynamic for Hundreds of Years

Munich has had an exceptionally successful history as a financial center. Throughout its history and up to the present it has been characterized by dynamism, know-how and entrepreneurial boldness. Here stood the most significant bank at the end of medieval times, and here some of the most important financial and insurance companies today have their headquarters. Here countless product innovations have been and are being developed, and here some of the most important decisions that impacted the entire financial world have been made. A chronology of the history of the area as a financial center follows:
1486–1799
1800–1899
1900–1999
2000–today
1486 The Fugger Brothers trading house in Augsburg was designated for the first time as a bank. It developed into today’s private bank, Fürst Fugger.
1540 In Augsburg, the first German bourse was founded. In the same year, a securities trading center in Nuremberg was also established. The market participants initially traded only debt instruments based on bills of exchange.
1774 Founding of Fürstlich Castell’schen Bank, Credit-Casse, in Castell.
1780 In Ansbach, Margrave Karl Alexander founded Hochfürstlich-Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuthische Hofbanco, which later became the Bavarian state bank.
1799 The first economic lectures took place at what is today Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. At that time, the university was still based in Ingolstadt – then later in Landshut.
1806/07 The Hochfürstlich-Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuthische Hofbanco is now called the “Royal Bavarian Bank” or in common parlance, simply the “Royal Bank”. The Bavarian government relocated the headquarters of the bank to Nuremberg.
1807 The first concrete proposal for establishing a savings bank in Bavaria. It was rejected.
1816 The Augsburg bourse started securities trading.
1821 The first Bavarian savings bank was opened in Nuremberg.
1824 Founding of the Munich Savings Bank.
1826 The moving of Ludgwig-Maximilians-University from Landshut to Munich marked the first time an economic faculty with its own professorships was established at a university in Bavaria.
1828 Another private bank, Gabler-Saliterbank, based in Günzburg, started up business activities.
1830 Opening of the Munich exchange.
1835 Founding of Bayerischen Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank AG. For the first time, an anonymous stock company administered – what was in that era – a very high capital stock. This affected all aspects of German banking. To compensate for the restrictions in the mortgage bank business, the king allowed the issuance of banknotes. From 1836 to 1875, Hypo-Bank is the Bavarian central bank. It introduced the first paper money in Bavaria.
1836 Hypo-Bank enters the insurance business and sets up insurance agencies throughout Bavaria. These agents served as Hypo-Bank’s first sales network, because they also brokered mortgages.
1843 King Ludwig I establishes the “savings bank decree”.
1854 Königliche Bank Nürnberg accepts 90-day term deposits against loans, an innovation that becomes the backbone of banking operations.
1857 In Bavaria, Hypo-Bank introduces advances on current accounts for customers. Beer-brewers provide the impetus for it.
1862 The beginnings of credit unions in modern Bavaria. In Munich, the Munich Loan Association was founded, which today is known as Münchner Bank eG. In Coburg, the local credit cooperative was founded.
1864 Hypo-Bank receives permission to introduce mortgage bonds in Bavaria. Hypo-Bank’s type of mortgage bond transaction quickly finds numerous imitators at home and abroad.
1867 Bavaria’s first cooperatives association arises from the founding of the commercial “(Unter-)Verbandes der Fränkischen Vorschuß- und Kreditgenossenschaften” [(Sub-) Association of the Franconian Small Loan Companies and Credit Unions] in Kissingen.
1869 Enactment of the Bavarian Cooperative Society Act.
1869 An association of well-known court bankers from Munich and Augsburg, members of the upper aristocracy, and town merchants found the Bayerische Vereinsbank.
1870 Heinrich Johann Merck and Adolf Karl-Ludwig Christian found the banking house of Merck, Christian & Co., today’s Merck, Finck and Co. private bankers. In the same year, Heinrich Aufhäuser founds the H. Aufhäuser KG banking house in Munich.
1871 Founding of LV 1871 under the name “Christian Catholic Funeral Society”.
1871 Founding of Süddeutsche Bodenkreditbank AG in Munich.
1875 The Bavarian king decrees the law establishing the “Royal Fire Insurance Association”, the forerunner to the Bavarian Insurance Chamber.
1875 Founding of the Bavarian Central Bank. It obtains the right to issue a maximum of 70 million marks. In Bavaria, German national banknotes and Bavarian state banknotes circulate simultaneously.
1876 The Reichsbank begins operations and at the same time opens for business the Reichsbank main office in Munich. The Reichsbank also founds several Bavarian Reichsbank branch offices.
1877 Founding of the Bavarian Cooperatives Association in Munich and founding of the “Theilheimer Darlehens-Cassen-Vereins eingetragene Genossenschaft” (Theilheimer Savings and Loan Association Registered Cooperative) at Randersacker near Würzburg – it is the first Raiffeisen (rural) credit union in Bavaria.
1880 Founding of Münchener Rück.
1880 Hypo-Bank introduces “safekeeping and management of securities with administration”. These so-called open securities accounts are an innovation in the field of asset management; subsequently other banks also introduce open securities accounts.
1884 Founding in Munich of the Widows and Orphans Support Fund of the Bavarian Union of Transportation Officials.
1884 Founding of Nürnberger Lebensversicherungs-Bank, the predecessor of today’s Nürnberger Versicherungsgruppe.
1884 Founding of the Bayerische Landeskulturrentenanstalt by King Ludwig II. It was the predecessor of today’s BayernLabo and Bayerische Landesbank.
1885 Münchener Rück becomes the world’s largest reinsurer.
1885 Accident insurance policies are offered for the first time in Bavaria by Nürnberger Lebensversicherungs-Bank.
1889 Carl v. Thieme and Wilhelm v. Finck, the co-founders of Münchener Rück, found Allianz-Versicherungs-AG, which was entered into the Berlin Commercial Register in February 1890.
1889 Hypo-Bank was accepted into the so-called Prussian Consortium, which issued German national bonds.
1893 Founding of Bayerische Zentral-Darlehenskasse (later Raiffeisen-Zentralbank) as a funds clearing center for the Bavarian Raiffeisen-Darlehenskassen-Vereine.
1896 Founding of Bayerische Landwirthschaftsbank eGmbH in Munich, today’s Münchener Hypothekenbank eG, Germany’s only mortgage bank operating in legal form as a registered cooperative.
1901 Introduction of insurance supervision in Bavaria.
1902 Founding of the Sterbekasse Bayerische Staatsdiener (Funeral Society of Bavarian State Servants). It was the predecessor company of Bayerische Beamten-Versicherung (BBV).
1906 A national law stops the joint operation of banking and insurance businesses. Hypo-Bank then transferred its insurance business from the Bayerische Versicherungsbank AG.
1908 Merger of the five Bavarian savings bank associations (Palatinate, Upper Palatinate, Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and Swabia) into a single state association. The savings bank associations of Lower and Central Franconia join the association.
1909 Founding of Vereinigung Münchner Banken & Bankiers.
1911 Bayerische Landesverband joins the Deutsche Sparkassenverband.
1913 Founding of the Ludwig Sperrer private bank in Freising.
1914 The Hafner banking house opens in Augsburg.
1914 Allianz becomes the largest German property insurer.
1914 Founding of Giroverband Bayerischer Sparkassen.
1916 Münchener Rück develops a classification system for estimating risks for life insurance. The actuarial tables it used are still the authoritative basis for setting rates for life insurance.
1916 Hypo-Bank is now the largest mortgage bank in Germany.
1918 With the end of the monarchy, the Royal Bank of Nuremberg changes its name to Bayerische Staatsbank.
1919 Vereinigung Münchner Banken & Bankiers gives rise to the Verband Bayerischer Bankleitungen, the predecessor of Bayerische Bankenverband.
1920 The first major bank merger in Bavaria: Bayerische Handelsbank and Vereinsbank in Nuremberg – both mixed mortgage banks – transfer their banking departments’ business to Bayerische Vereinsbank and continue on as pure mortgage banks.
1920 The Bavarian state government relocates Bayerische Staatsbank’s headquarters from Nuremberg to Munich.
1922 Founding of Bayern-Versicherung.
1924 Founding of the Max Flessa KG banking house in Schweinfurt.
1925 Landesverband Bayerischer Sparkassen renamed Bayerischer Sparkassen und Giroverband.
1929 Bayerische Landesbausparkasse established.
1933 Bayerische Sparkassen- und Giroverband becomes a corporation under public law.
1935 Merger of the Munich and Augsburg exchanges into the Bavarian Exchange, headquartered in Munich.
1935 The Bavarian Central Bank becomes the Bavarian State Bank (Bayerische Staatsbank).
1938 “Forced Aryanization” of the H. Aufhäuser private bank house.
1941 D.A.S. moves its headquarters from Berlin to Munich. After the end of the Second World War, it develops into Europe’s leading legal expenses insurer.
1945 On August 10th, the Bavarian Exchange is the first German exchange to reopen for trading after the Second World War.
1947 The Bavarian state central bank opens for business in Munich.
1948 The Bavarian Bankers Association is established.
1949 Relocation of Allianz-Versicherungs-AG’s head office from Berlin to Munich.
1949 Founding of first German mutual fund, ADIG-Investment. Munich thus takes on a pioneering role in investment savings.
1950 Today’s HUK-Coburg insurance group relocates its headquarters from Erfurt to Coburg.
1957 Bavarian savings banks introduce cashless payment of wages.
1958 Hypo-Bank and Bayerische Vereinsbank found Internationale Immobilien-Institut GmbH (iii-investments). It is the first investment company for open real estate funds in Germany. In 1959 it brings out the iii-fund No. 1.
1958 Founding of Bayerische Bankenfonds. It was the predecessor of, and role model for, today’s deposit guarantee fund of the Association of German Banks.
1960 Hypo-Bank and other banks found Allfonds-Gesellschaft für Investmentanlagen mbH, now Activest, to manage special securities funds. It is the precursor of today’s Activest.
1965 ADIG introduced an “Aufbaukonto” (investment “build up” account). ADIG thus creates an offer for systematic savings investment for a broad class of society for the first time in Germany.
1967 Introduction of savings certificates.
1971 Merger of Bayerische Staatsbank with Bayerische Vereinsbank.
1971 Founding of BMW Bank GmbH.
1971 Nürnberger Versicherungsgruppe introduces variable life insurance and helps it become popular throughout Germany.
1972 Merger of Landesbodenkreditanstalt and Bayerische Gemeindebank into Bayerische Landesbank, the parent bank of the Bavarian savings banks.
1975 Noris Verbraucherbank is the first German financial institution to introduce customer self-service.
1985 Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank takes over Bayerische Raiffeisen-Zentralbank’s banking transactions.
1989 Raiffeisenverband and Bayerische Genossenschaftsverband merge and become “Genossenschaftsverband Bayern (Raiffeisen/Schlulze-Delitzsch) e. V.”.
1990 Victoria Versicherung and Bayerische Vereinsbank jointly found Victoria Kapitalanlagegesellschaft. This later becomes part of MEAG.
1991 Allianz acquires the US insurance company, Fireman’s Fund .
1994 ADIG opens the first German money market fund.
1994 Hypo-Bank founds Direktanlage-Bank, the first German discount broker. Under the name DAB Bank AG, it is now one of the leading German direct banks in securities transactions.
1994 Schmidt-Bank founds Consors, the Nuremberg discount broker. It, too, rapidly becomes one of the leading direct banks in Germany.
1995 Allianz acquires Vereinte Versicherungsgruppe in Munich.
1997 Allianz takes over AGF, the French insurance group.
1997 Münchener Rück combines a major portion of its direct insurance activities under the umbrella of ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG, creating Germany’s second largest direct insurer.
1998 Merger of Hypo-Bank and Bayerische Vereinsbank into Bayerische Hypo- and Vereinsbank AG (HVB), thus creating Germany’s second largest bank.
1998 In Nuremberg, Noris Verbraucherbank and Franken WKV Bank merge and become Norisbank AG.
1999 Münchener Rück and ERGO Versicherungsgruppe found MEAG MUNICH ERGO AssetManagement GmbH. MEAG becomes the asset manager of Münchener-Rück-Gruppe. MEAG Kapitalanlagegesellschaft arises from the merger of VICTORIA Kapitalanlagegesellschaft and Hamburg-Mannheimer Trust.
1999 HVB is the first German bank to introduce “Principles for Employee Conduct in Real Estate Transactions” (compliance for real estate transactions).
2000 HVB founds Indexchange AG. It is the first company to issue exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Germany on the DAX and on the Dow Jones Index and thus helps ETFs break through to the public eye.
2000 As part of Europe’s first cross-border bank merger, HVB integrates Bank Austria into its operations. The new bank, HVB Group, develops into one of the leading banks in Eastern Europe
2000 Allianz takes over Pimco, a US asset manager specializing in fixed-interest securities.
2000 HVB is the first German bank to also recommend a competitor’s funds.
2000 Founding of the Munich Financial Center Initiative at the urging of Otto Wiesheu, Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs.
2001 Allianz acquires Germany’s third largest financial institution, Dresdner Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt.
2002 The former state central bank in the Free State of Bavaria becomes “Munich Regional Office of the Deutsche Bundesbank”.
2003 The Munich exchange introduces the Max-One trading system.
2003 HVB transfers its holdings in German mortgage banks, as well as its international real estate financing activities, to the newly-founded Hypo Real Estate Group. This group is now among the 15 largest banks in Germany.
2004 Commerzbank takes over the retail banking business of SchmidtBank, headquartered in Hof, which fell into difficulties in 2001.
2004 HVB introduces Preferred Pooled Shares (PREPS) for the first time in Germany, a financing product with an equity nature aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
2004 Stadtsparkasse München is the first German savings bank ever to issue a mortgage bond.
2005 With "M:access", the Munich Exchange launches a new market segment for SMEs.
2005 The heads of HVB and the Italian UniCredit agree on the largest European bank merger ever.
2007 Hypo Real Estate Holding AG takes over DEPFA Bank, one of the world's leading providers of financial services to public sector entities and authorities
A comprehensive portrayal of the history of Munich's financial community was recently put together by Hans Pohl and published by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag.