Five centuries at the forefront of finance

Munich is home to Germany's largest and most innovative insurance, reinsurance, venture and participatory capital, asset management and trade financing industries. The city has Germany's second largest banking sector and stock exchange.

These positions represent the setting forth of a more than five hundred year tradition in Bavaria of being home to the institutions and entrepreneurs with the vision, resources and skill requisite to create the products and services advancing world finance. 
1486–1799
1800–1899
1900–1999
2000–today
1486 The Augsburg-based Fuggers, Europe’s leading trading dynasty, sets up a bank that is still in existence today.
1540 The launching of securities trading in Augsburg, making it Germany’s first bourse. Also in the same year: trading in bills of exchange is commenced in Nuremberg.
1774 Founding of Fürstlich Castell’schen Bank, Credit-Casse, in Castell.
1780 In Ansbach, Margrave Karl Alexander founds Hochfürstlich-Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuthische Hofbanco, which goes on to become the Bavarian state bank.
1799 The first lectures in economics in Bavaria take place in a university in Ingolstadt. After a stop in Landshut, the facility goes on to become today’s Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
1806/07 The Hochfürstlich-Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuthische Hofbanco is rechristened the “Royal Bavarian Bank”. The Bavarian government relocates 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 Bavaria’s first savings bank is founded in Nuremberg.
1824 Founding of what has become Stadtsparkasse München, Munich’s savings bank.
1826 The moving of Ludwig-Maximilians-University from Landshut to Munich is accompanied by the setting up of Bavaria’s first dedicated school of economics.
1828 Another private bank, Gabler-Saliterbank, based in Günzburg, starts up business activities.
1830 The Munich Stock Exchange begins trading.
1835 Founding of Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank AG. In a first for Germany, this bank has the form of a joint stock company equipped with a relatively large capital stock. This makes the bank a role model throughout Germany. To compensate for the restrictions placed upon the mortgage bank business, the king of Bavaria allows the bank to issue banknotes. From 1836 to 1875, Hypo-Bank serves as Bavaria’s central bank, introducing Bavaria’s first paper money in the process.
1836 Hypo-Bank enters the insurance business by setting up agencies throughout Bavaria. These agents also arrange mortgages.
1843 King Ludwig I promulgates the “savings bank decree”.
1854 Königliche Bank Nürnberg (Royal Bank of Nuremberg) starts accepting 90-day term deposits against loans, an innovation that becomes the backbone of banking operations.
1857 Hypo-Bank introduces the provision of advances on current accounts for customers. Brewers are among the initial customers.
1862 The credit union era begins in Bavaria with the founding in Munich of what is today’s Münchner Bank eG. and of a similar institution in Coburg.
1864 Hypo-Bank receives permission to introduce mortgage bonds in Bavaria. This innovation quickly spreads throughout Europe.
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 Founding of Bayerische Vereinsbank.
1870 Heinrich Johann Merck and Adolf Karl-Ludwig Christian found the 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 a law establishing the “Royal Fire Insurance Association”, the forerunner to the Bavarian Insurance Chamber.
1875 Founding of the Bavarian Central Bank. It is granted the right to issue a maximum of 70 million marks. Circulating in Bavaria are both German national and Bavarian state banknotes.
1876 The Reichsbank (German national bank) begins operations. It also opens a main office in Munich and several other ones in Bavaria.
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). Located in Randersacker, it is the first Raiffeisen (rural) credit union in Bavaria.
1880 Founding of Munich Re, now the world’s largest reinsurer.
1880 Hypo-Bank introduces “custody and management services for securities” – a major innovation.
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 – a predecessor of 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 Munich Re, found Allianz-Versicherungs-AG.
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. It has gone on to become today’s Münchener Hypothekenbank eG.
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 the Association of Munich’s Banks and Bankers.
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 Germany’s largest property insurer.
1914 Founding of Giroverband Bayerischer Sparkassen – the Association of Bavarian Savings Banks.
1916 Munich Re develops a classification system for estimating risks for life insurance. The actuarial tables used still form the basis for the setting of rates for life insurance.
1916 Hypo-Bank has become the largest mortgage bank in Germany.
1918 Upon 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, which is headquartered in Munich.
1935 The Bavarian Central Bank becomes the 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. In the post-war era, it develops into Europe’s leading provider of legal insurance.
1945 On August 10th, the Bavarian Exchange becomes the first exchange in Germany to reopen.
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 in Munich of Germany’s first mutual fund - ADIG-Investment.
1950 Today’s HUK-Coburg insurance group relocates its headquarters from Erfurt to Coburg.
1957 Bavarian savings banks introduce non-cash payment of wages.
1958 Hypo-Bank and Bayerische Vereinsbank founds Internationale Immobilien-Institut GmbH (iii-investments), the first manager of open-end real estate funds in Germany. In 1959 it brings out the iii-fund No. 1.
1958 Founding of Bayerische Bankenfonds, 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-purpose securities funds.
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 pioneers floating return life insurance in Germany.
1972 Merger of Landesbodenkreditanstalt and Bayerische Gemeindebank into Bayerische Landesbank.
1975 Nuremberg’s Noris Verbraucherbank becomes Germany’s first ‘self-service’ bank.
1985 Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank takes over Bayerische Raiffeisen-Zentralbank’s banking transactions.
1989 Raiffeisenverband and Bayerische Genossenschaftsverband merge to 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 Fireman’s Fund, the US insurer.
1994 ADIG launches Germany’s first money market fund.
1994 Hypo-Bank founds the predecessor of DAB Bank AG, Germany’s first discount broker and now one of the leading direct banks handling securities transactions.
1994 Founding of Consors, the Nuremberg discount broker. It, too, rapidly becomes one of the leading direct banks in Germany.
1995 Allianz acquires the Munich-based Vereinte Versicherungsgruppe.
1997 Allianz takes over AGF, the French insurance group.
1997 Munich Re assigns much of its direct insurance activities to its ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG subsidiary, now the second largest in its field.
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 to form Norisbank AG.
1999 Munich Re and ERGO Versicherungsgruppe set up MEAG. Its brief is to be the asset manager of its group.
1999 HVB becomes the first bank in Germany to introduce “Principles of Employee Conduct in Real Estate Transactions” (code of conduct for real estate transactions).
2000 HVB founds Indexchange AG. It becomes the first company to issue exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Germany. The funds track the DAX and Dow Jones.
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 fpmi - the Munich Financial Center Initiative – at the initiative of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.
2001 Allianz acquires Germany’s third largest financial institution, Dresdner Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt.
2002 The former state central bank of the Free State of Bavaria becomes the Munich 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 becomes the first German savings bank to issue a mortgage bond.
2005 The Munich Exchange launches a new market segment for SMEs - "M:access".
2005 HVB merges with the Italian UniCredit to form the fifth largest European bank.
2009 The Munich Stock Exchange launches its greenmarket segment, upon which CO2 emission certificates are traded.
2010 Allianz Global Investors completes its takeover of cominvest.
2011 2011 The Munich Stock Exchange founds the commodity exchange “greenmarket“.
A comprehensive portrayal of the history of Munich's financial community was put together by Hans Pohl and published by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag.