Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken
Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken is a brand of cooperative banks in Germany. "Volksbank" derives from People's Bank institutes (cooperatives originally created by the local population, often those of a town) and "Raiffeisenbanke" refers to banks founded on initiatives by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (the pioneer of German farmer credit unions). Many cooperative banks in Germany have either "Volksbank" or "Raiffeisenbank" in their name – the nationwide services and associations in the cooperative branch of the German financing industry used the compound of the plurals of these words (so it translates as Peoples banks and Raiffeisen banks).
The national association is the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken.
FinanzVerbund
The Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (Federal Association of German 'Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken' Cooperative Banks) has introduced the "FinanzVerbund" (translated by the association as "Cooperative Financial Services Network") or Finanzverbund Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken combining a number of subsidiaries.
- Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall – cooperative building society / home loan bank
- R+V Versicherung – one of the largest insurance groups in Germany
- Union Investment Gruppe – investment fund society
- easyCredit – consumer credit brand of the cooperative TeamBank
- DZ Bank – central bank of the cooperative branch in Germany
- DG Hyp – the largest investment in property / mortgage bank
- Münchener Hypothekenbank – the only cooperative mortgage bank
- WL Bank – "Westfälische Landschaft Bodenkreditbank", the mortgage bank subsidiary of the WGZ Bank
- VR Leasing – leasing bank in the VR Finanzverbund
- WGZ Bank – formerly regional central bank for North Rhine-Westphalia, since the merger in 2016 it's DZ BANK,
Note how some financial institutes use variants of the Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken brand, its abbreviation "VR" or the older brand "R+V" (spoken as "R and V" referring to Raiffeisen and Volksbank). The scheme of a corporate identity and a franchise market where a brand and product structure is licensed is a modern invention that came about long after most cooperatives were founded, so many financial institutes continue with their historic name. Nevertheless, most of the cooperative financial institutes have changed to the blue-orange color of the Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken brand (only Schwäbisch-Hall continues with its traditional red-yellow logo).
The 'Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken' group in Germany is not associated with the 'Volksbank' institutes (people's bank) in other countries, like the Volksbank group headquartered in Austria. Likewise 'Raiffeisen' is more generic than banks and it is often used in other cooperation types in the farming industry, see Deutscher Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisenverband.