ABSTRACT
The German banking system possesses three distinctive features. First, the casual observer may conclude that the German banking scene is dominated by the Big Three commercial banks—the Deutsche Bank AG, the Dresdner Bank AG and the Commerzbank AG. However, although these private-sector banks do indeed wield a great deal of market power, the ownership of the bulk of Germany’s banks in fact lies in the hands of the public authorities and the cooperative banking movement. It would be equally wrong to view the private sector as consisting solely of the Big Three: there is a rich variety of banks within this sector. In short, three forms of ownership are represented among the economy’s top banks, namely private, public and cooperative. Linked to the question of ownership, of course, is the more complex issue of control—an issue which is also considered in this and the subsequent chapter.
