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financial tips
banking
Banking in the German-speaking world has a long tradition going back to the 14th century and the banklike dealings of the north German Hanseatic League (Hansa). In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Augsburg-based Fugger money lending and commercial dynasty held kings and emperors in its debt. Later, the House of Rothschild, based in Frankfurt am Main, carried on the far-reaching German banking tradition in the 19th century.
For those planning to live and work in German Europe today, the first word to learn is Geldautomat, German for ATM. Today they are available through out Germany, even in smaller out of the way locations. Germany’s Sparkassen alone have more than 14,000 ATMs scattered across the land. As long as you remember your personal identification number (PIN, Geheimzahl), you’ll have easy access to cash by using your debit or credit card in Austria, Germany or Switzerland.
German banks can be divided roughly into five categories:
- large commercial banks
- government-owned state and regional wholesale banks
- savings banks (Sparkassen)
- the smaller cooperative credit banks (Raiffeisenbanken, Volksbanken)
- postal savings banks system (Postbank AG)
