1.
Bankenviertel
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Bankenviertel is the name of the central business district in Frankfurt, Germany. It designates an area in the city centre, where many banks, insurance companies and it is the most important financial centre in Germany and one of the largest in Europe along with La Défense in the Paris aire urbaine and Londons City and Canary Wharf. Having no official or strict borders, it is defined as the western part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend. Its most central square is the Opernplatz, the Bankenviertel is not an official city district and has no officially or strictly defined borders. It stretches across three city districts, the part of the Innenstadt, the southern part of the Westend. Many of the largest banks in Germany, e. g. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and Helaba, have their headquarters here. It is also the place where most of Frankfurts high-rises and skyscrapers are located, furthermore, the area on both sides of the Mainzer Landstraße from Taunusanlage to Platz der Republik and the Bockenheimer Landstraße, beginning at the Opernplatz, are part of the area. The Bankenviertel is very accessible with the public transport system. Eight of nine suburban S-Bahn lines serve the stations Hauptwache, Taunusanlage, the tram lines 11 and 12 stop at Frankfurt Central Station and Willy-Brandt-Platz, and the lines 16 and 17 link the central station and the Frankfurt Trade Fair area
2.
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
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The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the worlds 10th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse AG and it is located in the district of Innenstadt and within the central business district known as Bankenviertel. The trading indices are DAX, DAXplus, CDAX, DivDAX, LDAX, MDAX, SDAX, TecDAX, VDAX, through its Deutsche Börse Cash Market business section, Deutsche Börse AG now operates two trading venues at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Xetra is the market for exchange trading in German equities. In 2015,90 per cent of all trading in shares at all German exchanges was transacted through the Xetra, with regard to DAX listings, Xetra has 60 per cent market share throughout Europe. Trading times on trading days are from 9.00 a. m. to 5.30 p. m, the prices on Xetra serve as the basis for calculating the DAX, the best-known German share index. Over 200 trading participants from 16 European countries, plus Hong Kong, Börse Frankfurt is the trading venue for mainly private investors with more than one million securities of German and international issuers. So named Specialists on the trading floor attend to the trading of the securities, trading at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is governed by clear rules, which apply equally for all trading participants. With a view to improving the continuity of prices and to avoid mistrades, several mechanisms are in place for the trading venues Xetra. These include volatility interruption, market order interruption, and liquidity interruption measures, the origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to medieval trade fairs in the 11th century. By the 16th century Frankfurt developed into a wealthy and busy city with a based on trade. In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates, during the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the worlds first stock exchanges - next to London and Paris. Bankers like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Max Warburg had substantial influence on Frankfurts financial trade, in 1879 Frankfurt Stock Exchange moved into its new building at Börsenplatz. During the 1990s the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was also bourse for the Neuer Markt as part of the worldwide dot-com boom, in 1993 the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse became Deutsche Börse AG, operating businesses for the exchange. Since then the profits from the presence of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. In 2002 and 2004 Deutsche Börse was in advanced negotiations to take over London Stock Exchange, financial Market Integration in a Wider European Union International financial centres, rivals or partner
3.
GDP
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
4.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
5.
Fugger
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Alongside the Welser family, the family controlled much of the European economy in the sixteenth century and accumulated enormous wealth. This banking family replaced the de Medici family, who influenced all of Europe during the Renaissance, the Fuggers took over many of the Medicis assets and their political power and influence. They were closely affiliated with the House of Habsburg whose rise to power they financed. Unlike the citizenry of their hometown, they never converted to the Augsburg Confession, Jakob Fugger „the Rich“ was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511 and created Imperial Count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn in 1514. The company was dissolved in 1657, however the Fuggers remained wealthy landowners and ruled the County of Kirchberg, the Babenhausen branch became Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803, the Glött branch princes in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1914. The founder of the family was Johann Fugger, a weaver at Graben and his son, also called Johann, settled in Augsburg, and the first reference to the Fugger family there is his arrival, recorded in the tax register of 1367. He married Klara Widolf and became an Augsburg citizen, after Klaras death, he married Elizabeth Gattermann. He joined the guild, and by 1396 he was ranked high in the list of taxpayers. He added the business of a merchant to that of a weaver and his eldest son, Andreas Fugger, was a merchant in the weaving trade, and was nicknamed Fugger the Rich after buying land and other properties. The Fugger family itemized and inventoried a large number of Asian rugs, andreass son, Lukas Fugger, was granted arms by the Emperor Frederick III, a golden deer on a blue background, and he was soon nicknamed the Fugger of the Deer. He was too ambitious, however, and went bankrupt and his descendants served their cousins of the famous younger branch and later went to Silesia. Contemporary members of the Fugger of the Deer are descendants of Matthäus Fugger, the current patriarch is Markus Fugger von dem Rech. Hans Fuggers younger son, Jakob the Elder, founded another branch of the family and this branch progressed more steadily and they became known as the Fuggers of the Lily after their chosen arms of a flowering lily on a gold and blue background. Jakob was a weaver, a merchant, and an alderman. He married Barbara Basinger, the daughter of a goldsmith and his fortune progressed, and by 1461, he was the twelfth richest man in Augsburg. Thus began a profitable relationship between the Fugger family and the Habsburgs. With the help of their brother in Rome, Markus, Ulrich and his brother George handled remittances to the court of monies for the sale of indulgences. From 1508 to 1515 they leased the Roman mint, when the Fuggers made their first loan to the Archduke Sigismund in 1487, they took as security an interest in silver and copper mines in the Tirol
6.
Welser
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Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled large sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas. Philippine Welser, famed for both her learning and her beauty, was married to Archduke Ferdinand, Emperor Ferdinand Is son, claiming descent from the Byzantine general Belisarius, the family is known since the 13th century. By the early Age of Discovery, the Welser family had established trading posts in Antwerp, Lyon, Madrid, Nuremberg, Sevilla, Lisbon, Venice, Rome, the Welsers financed not only the Emperor, but also other European monarchs. The history of the family can be traced back to the 13th century, later its members became widely known as prominent merchants. In the 15th and 16th centuries, branches of the family settled at Nuremberg and in Austria, Welser, explored Venezuela and was executed by local Spanish Governor Juan de Carvajal in 1546. Bartholomäuss niece, Philippine, daughter of Franz Welser, renowned for her learning and beauty and she was given the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Nellenburg and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhohenberg. Their children were debarred from inheriting their fathers rank as Archdukes of Austria, their son Margrave Andrew of Burgau became a cardinal and Charles, another member of the Welser family, Markus Welser, became famous for his learning. He was a humanist, historian, publisher and from 1611 Bürgermeister of Augsburg, carl Wilhelm Welser von Neunhof was a mayor of Nuremberg. Bartholomeus V. Welser was ennobled by the Emperor in 1532, the Augsburg main line became extinct in 1797, the Nuremberg branch in 1878. The Ulm branch, which became Imperial Barons in 1713, still exists, the Welsersche Familienstiftung, founded on 1 April 1539, still exists and has owned numerous castles in Germany. Following the extinction of the senior lines of the family. In Augsburg, a museum of Welser and Fugger history is planned, fernhandel, Familienbeziehungen und sozialer Status an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, in, Wolfgang Jahn u. a. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Antonierhaus, Memmingen 12, oktober 1998, Veröffentlichungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur 37/98, München 1998, S. 17–37 Jörg Denzer, Die Konquista der Augsburger Welser-Gesellschaft in Südamerika. Nuremberg City Lexicon, pp.1171 f, 262–371, auch online Johann Michael Frhr. v. Welser, Die Welser, Nürnberg 1917, Selbstverlag der Welserschen Familienstiftung, Venezuela
7.
Berenberg Bank
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KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank, is a Hamburg-based multinational investment banking and private banking company, founded by the Belgian-origined Berenberg family in 1590. It is the worlds oldest merchant bank, the banks name refers to Johann Berenberg and Johann Hinrich Gossler, and has remained unchanged since 1791. The bank is organized as a partnership with personally liable partners. Following the 2000s financial crisis, the bank has grown rapidly, the current senior partner and head of the bank Hans-Walter Peters is also President of the Association of German Banks. The Berenberg Company was founded in Hamburg in 1590 by the brothers Hans, the bank has been continuously owned by their descendants ever since. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and quickly extended their business to other commodities, Hans Berenbergs grandson Cornelius Berenberg was the first to engage in merchant banking and developed the company into a very successful merchant house and merchant bank. He forged trade links with France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, family connections of the Berenbergs were instrumental to the development, especially in Livorno and Lisbon with their colonies of wealthy Dutch merchants. Cornelius Berenbergs son, Rudolf Berenberg, was elected a Senator, that is, by the mid 18th century, investment banking and acceptance credits comprised a significant part of the firms activities. Rudolf Berenberg was married to Anna Elisabeth Amsinck, a daughter of the Lisbon and Hamburg merchant Paul Amsinck and their sons, Senator Paul Berenberg and Johann Berenberg, became owners of the Berenberg company. In 1768 Senator Paul Berenberg died childless, while his brother Johann Berenberg lost his son in the same year. The Gossler family is known since the 17th century, when Johann Hinrich Gosslers great-grandfather was a Hamburg burgher, Elisabeth Berenberg was the last member of the Hamburg Berenberg family, which became extinct in the male line upon her death in 1822. Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg were the founders of the Berenberg-Gossler family, in 1788 Johann Hinrich Gossler took on a new partner, his son-in-law L. E. Seyler, who had married his eldest daughter Anna Henriette Gossler, from 1790, the company was led by L. E. Seyler, and his mother-in-law Elisabeth Berenberg was a partner in her own right from 1790 to 1800, Seylers brother-in-law Johann Heinrich Gossler joined the firm in 1798 and became a Hamburg senator in 1821. Under Seylers leadership, the name was changed to Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. effective from 1 January 1791, Berenberg refers to Johann Berenberg, Gossler refers to Johann Hinrich Gossler and Co. originally refers to L. E. Seylers children were briefly co-owners of Berenberg Bank, they have many prominent descendants in Hamburg and Norway, with names such as von Hosstrup, Wegner. Her younger brother Johann Heinrich Gossler s son Hermann Gossler was a senator, the latters younger brother Johann Heinrich Gossler became a partner at Berenberg Bank and was the father of Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler, who also became a partner at the bank
8.
Berenberg family
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The Berenberg family was a Belgian-origined Hanseatic family of merchants, bankers and senators in Hamburg, with branches in London, Livorno and other European cities. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and became involved in merchant banking in the 17th century, having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the worlds oldest surviving merchant bank. The Berenberg banking family became extinct in the line with Elisabeth Berenberg, she was married to Johann Hinrich Gossler. A branch of the family was ennobled by Prussia as Barons of Berenberg-Gossler. Several members of the Berenberg and Gossler families served in the Senate of Hamburg from 1735, richard J. Evans describes the family as one of Hamburgs great business families. The Gossler Islands in Antarctica are named for the family, Elisabeth Berenberg and Johann Hinrich Gossler presently have descendants with names including Gossler, Berenberg-Gossler, Wegner, Paus, Bernstorff and other names. Members of the Berenberg family have founded other companies. A London branch of the Berenberg family were prominent merchants in the West Indies trade from the 17th century, the Berenberg family originates from the Bergisches Land region in the Duchy of Berg. Its earliest known ancestor, Thillmann Berenberg, was born on the Groß-Berenberg estate in 1465, the growing linen industry of Brabant led Thillmanns son, Jan Berenberg, to take his family to Lier in Antwerp, where he became a burgher in 1515. He was married to Engele Segers, and they were the parents of Paul Berenberg, who was a merchant in Antwerp. Paul Berenberg was the father of Hans and Paul Berenberg, the two brothers married sisters Anna and Francina Snellinck, daughters of the Antwerp merchant Andries Snellinck and Françoise de Rénialme. The Berenbergs were one of 130 Dutch families that had become Lutheran during the Reformation, during the Eighty Years War, the family fled Lier and settled in the nearby city of Antwerp. The family left Antwerp in 1585 as a result of the Fall of Antwerp, many Dutch refugees settled in Hamburg, among them the brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg. In 1590, they founded the merchant house now known as Berenberg Bank and they were originally cloth merchants and active in the import-export business. In Hamburg, the Berenbergs initially formed part of a Dutch colony and intermarried with the citys leading Hanseatic families, while a number of Dutch refugees became Hamburg citizens, Hans and Paul Berenberg were not prepared to take that step. In 1605, the Hamburg council issued a decree that gave the Dutch merchants the rights as the burghers of Hamburg. Their son, Cornelius Berenberg, was the first to engage in merchant banking and developed the company into a successful merchant house. He forged trade links with France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, family connections of the Berenbergs were instrumental to the development, especially in Livorno and Lisbon with its colonies of wealthy Dutch merchants
9.
Electronic cash
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Electronic cash is the debit card system of the German Banking Industry Committee, the association which represents the top German financial interest groups. Usually paired with a Transaction account or Current Account, cards with an Electronic Cash logo are only handed out by proper credit institutions, an electronic card payment is generally made by the card owner entering their PIN at a so-called EFT-POS-terminal. The name “EC” originally comes from the unified European checking system Eurocheque, comparable debit card systems are Maestro and Visa Electron. Banks and credit institutions who issue these cards often pair EC debit cards with Maestro functionality and these combined cards, recognizable by an additional Maestro logo, are referred to as “EC/Maestro cards”. All of Germanys providers registered with the Central Credit Committee are connected in the working group Arbeitskreis der electronic cash-Netzbetreiber. According to the Federal Cartel Office of Germany, the providers have considerable market shares, easycash – easycash GmbH, Ratingen. Currently there are two valid acceptance marks for electronic cash, the electronic cash PIN-Pad and girocard pictograms, furthermore, the acceptance marks are printed on the debit cards of German financial institutions. The trademarks on these two marks are held for the Central Credit Committee by the EURO Kartensysteme GmbH. This mark was used during the transition from Eurocheque to payment via ec-card, after the abolition of the Eurocheque, the allocation of ec-cards by the German credit services sector was suspended and the trademarks for Eurocheque were sold to MasterCard. The German banking sector no longer uses the ec electronic cash sign as an acceptance mark for electronic cash. Instead, newly issued debit cards show the two current acceptance marks described above, however, the old ec electronic cash sign can still be found on some debit cards in circulation. These cards, which were issued before the new pictograms were introduced, remain valid, newly installed electronic cash POS terminals also bear the new pictograms. A card terminal, also called EFT-POS terminal, consists of hardware and software components, the main hardware components are the security module, the PIN pad, the printer, the display, the magnetic card reader, the chip-card reader, the communication module and the power supply. The most important element is the security module, without which the terminal can only be used for electronic direct debit transactions. All card terminals working with the electronic cash system have to be certified by the ZKA in order to part in cashless payment transactions. Terminals working exclusively with EDD do not require a ZKA certificate, operating a card terminal requires a provider contract with the network operator. The data collected by the terminal is processed by the provider, for the time the terminal is in use the user can contact the service provider. He can call a hotline and is guaranteed on-site technical support by a technician and he has a contact person who helps with questions about the account, transaction control, managing the contract, etc
10.
Automated teller machine
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According to the ATM Industry Association, there are now close to 3 million ATMs installed worldwide. Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number which must match the PIN stored in the chip on the card or in the financial institutions database. Using an ATM, customers can access their deposit or credit accounts in order to make a variety of transactions such as cash withdrawals, check balances. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the account is denominated the money will be converted at an official exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rates for foreign travellers, the idea of out-of-hours cash distribution developed from bankers needs in Asia, Europe and North America. Little is known of the Japanese device other than it was called Computer Loan Machine, the device was operational in 1966. In the US patent record, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing a prior art device, specifically his 132nd patent, which was first filed on 30 June 1960. The roll-out of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed by a couple of years, an experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine and did not have cash dispensing features and it is widely accepted that the first ATM was put into use by Barclays Bank in its Enfield Town branch in north London, United Kingdom, on 27 June 1967. This machine was inaugurated by English comedy actor Reg Varney and this instance of the invention is credited to the engineering team led by John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue, who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. Shepherd-Barron stated, It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash. The Barclays-De La Rue machine beat the Swedish saving banks and a company called Metiors machine by a nine days. The online version of the Swedish machine is listed to have been operational on 6 May 1968, the collaboration of a small start-up called Speytec and Midland Bank developed a fourth machine which was marketed after 1969 in Europe and the US by the Burroughs Corporation. The patent for this device was filed on September 1969 by John David Edwards, Leonard Perkins, John Henry Donald, Peter Lee Chappell, Sean Benjamin Newcombe & Malcom David Roe. Both the DACS and MD2 accepted only a token or voucher which was retained by the machine while the Speytec worked with a card with a magnetic stripe at the back. They used principles including Carbon-14 and low-coercivity magnetism in order to make more difficult. The idea of a PIN stored on the card was developed by a British engineer working on the MD2 named James Goodfellow in 1965, the essence of this system was that it enabled the verification of the customer with the debited account without human intervention. This patent is also the earliest instance of a complete currency dispenser system in the patent record and this patent was filed on 5 March 1968 in the US and granted on 1 December 1970
11.
Branch (banking)
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In the period from 1100-1300 banking started to expand across Europe and banks began opening ‘branches’ in remote, foreign locations to support international trade. In 1327, Avignon in France had 43 branches of Italian banking houses alone, the practice of opening satellite branches was popularized in the early 20th century by Amadeo Giannini, then head of the Bank of America. Historically, branches were housed in imposing buildings, often in a style of architecture. Today, branches may take the form of smaller offices within a larger complex. Traditionally, the branch was the place of access to a financial institutions services. In the early 21st century, features such as automated machines, telephone and online banking, allow customers to bank from remote locations. This has caused financial institutions to reduce their branch business hours, conversely, they converted some into mini-branches with only ATMs for cash withdrawal and depositing, computer terminals for online banking and cheque depositing machines. Some mini-branches may have one or no human staff with only telephone support, some branches also have drive-through teller windows or ATMs. Other financial institutions reduce their costs and position their offerings by having no branches and are known as virtuals or direct banks. Over the next few decades, some attempted to circumvent McFaddens provisions by establishing bank holding companies that operated so-called independent banks in multiple states. To address this, The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibited bank holding companies headquartered in one state from having branches in any other state, most interstate banking prohibitions were repealed by the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. Some states have also had restrictive bank branch laws, for example, Illinois outlawed branches until 1967 and these are typically stand alone branches of a financial institution that often are contained in its own building. These branches typically offer full service banking including safe deposit boxes and they may include access to a drive-through teller windows. These are typically located in a retail space such as a grocery. They may be full service branches or limited service branches and they generally do not include a drive-through teller windows or safe deposit boxes. A type of bank that is obligated to follow the regulations of both the home and host countries. operating in the country, regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions
12.
Deutsche Bank
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Deutsche Bank AG is a German global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt. It has more than 100,000 employees in over 70 countries, and has a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific. In 2009, Deutsche Bank was the largest foreign exchange dealer in the world with a share of 21 percent. The company was a component of the STOXX Europe 50 stock market index until being replaced on that index on August 8,2016, the bank offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business clients. Deutsche Bank’s core business is investment banking, which represents 50% of equity, 75% of leverage assets, in January 2014, Deutsche Bank reported a €1.2 billion pre-tax loss for the fourth quarter of 2013. This came after analysts had predicted a profit of nearly €600 million, revenues slipped by 16% versus the prior year. On 7 June 2015, the then co-CEOs, Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, Anshu Jains resignation took effect on 30 June 2015, but he provided consultancy to the bank until January 2016. Juergen Fitschen temporarily continued as joint CEO until 19 May 2016, the appointment of John Cryan as joint CEO was announced, effective 1 July 2016, he became sole CEO at the end of Juergen Fitschens term. In January 2016, Deutsche Bank pre-announced a 2015 loss before income taxes of approximately €6.1 billion, Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 as a specialist bank for foreign trade. The banks statute was adopted on 22 January 1870, and on 10 March 1870 the Prussian government granted it a banking licence, three of the founders were Georg Siemens whose fathers cousin had founded Siemens and Halske, Adelbert Delbrück and L. Bamberger. Its first foray overseas came shortly afterwards, in Shanghai and London followed sometime by South America, major projects in the early years of the bank included the Northern Pacific Railroad in the US and the Baghdad Railway. In Germany, the bank was instrumental in the financing of bond offerings of steel company Krupp, the second half of the 1890s saw the beginning of a new period of expansion at Deutsche Bank. The bank formed alliances with large banks, giving itself an entrée into Germanys main industrial regions. Joint ventures were symptomatic of the then under way in the German banking industry. In addition, the bank rapidly perceived the value of specialist institutions for the promotion of foreign business, the immediate postwar period was a time of liquidations. Having already lost most of its assets, Deutsche Bank was obliged to sell other holdings. A great deal of energy went into shoring up what had been achieved, but there was new business, too, some of which was to have an impact for a long time to come. The bank played a significant role in the establishment of the production company, UFA
13.
Deutsche Postbank
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Deutsche Postbank AG is a German retail bank with headquarters in Bonn. Postbank was formed from the demerger of the postal division of Deutsche Bundespost in 1990. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Post in 1999, Deutsche Post retained a controlling stake of 50% plus one share until September 2008, when 30% of this was sold to Deutsche Bank for €2.8 billion. Deutsche Bank gained a majority stake in the firm through a tender offer completed in December 2010, in the end, the total purchase cost Deutsche Bank €6 billion. The Postscheckdienst was introduced in 1909 by the German Reich establishing accounts for payment transactions by mail and linking postal, in 1990, following the German Postal Services Restructuring Act of 1989, the German Postal Service was divided into three companies, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom and Postbank. Later that year, Deutsche Post Postbank of the former East Germany was merged with Postbank, from 1990 to 1997, Dr. Guenter Schneider was chairman of the board. The first board of Postbank consisted of Guenter Schneider, Rudolf Bauer, on 1 January 1995, following the new postal reform legislation of 1994, Postbank became an independent, joint stock company. Postbank then extended operations, and engaged in loans, insurance, in 1999, Deutsche Post became the owner of Postbank. In that same year, Postbank acquired DSL Bank by the sale of the governments shares, Postbank subsidiary easytrade began offering on-line brokerage services in 2000. Postbank purchased BHF Holdings Inc. in 2001, by 2003, Postbank had 11.5 million customers, more than any other bank in Germany. On 1 January 2004 the postal bank took over the banking of the Deutsche Bank. From then on Postbank executed the clearing and settlement of Deutsche Bank and this agreement strengthened the bank’s new business field Transaction Bank in the apron of the announced Initial Public Offering. The IPO of Postbank on 23 June 2004 was the largest stock market launch in Germany for the past 2 years, on 25 October 2005 Postbank announced its intention to acquire a 76.4 percent stake of the home financing specialist, Beamten-Heimstättenwerk. With the acquisition of BHW Deutsche Postbank became Germany’s leading financial services provider for retail customers, on 1 January 2006 the purchase of BHW Holding by Deutsche Postbank was concluded. Beyond that Deutsche Postbank took over 850 branches from Deutsche Post, along with the change in ownership, around 9,600 employees switched employer, bringing Postbanks workforce to over 25,000 employees. In October 2010, Postbank put its Indian finance business up for sale
14.
HypoVereinsbank
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Its registered office is in Munich and it is a member of the Cash Group. Since 2005, UniCredit Bank AG has been a subsidiary of UniCredit S. p. A. an Italian financial service provider with its office in Rome. HVB thus became a subsidiary and has not been listed on the stock exchange since this time. Operating in Germany, HVB mainly focuses on private business and corporate banking, customer-related capital market activities. As a mixed mortgage bank, it performs banking operations as a bank within the meaning of the Mortgage Banking Act and. UniCredit AG comprises three business segments, UniCredit Bank AG is hence orientated towards the structure of UniCredit S. p. A. The business segments are in charge of the business and service units allocated to them, the oldest roots of UniCredit Bank AG go back to Bayerische Staatsbank, which was founded during the second half of the 18th century. The margrave resorted to this plan for economic reasons as he wanted to avoid the fees charged by the foreign banks, the war between England and France in North America had led England to conclude contracts with German counts and request troops from them in exchange for aid funds. After the Napoleonic wars, the margravates Ansbach and Bayreuth came to Kingdom of Bavaria, the end of the monarchy in Bavaria 1918 finally saw the renaming of the bank to Bayerische Staatsbank. In 1971, the Bayerische Bank merged with Bayerische Vereinsbank, the Bayerische Vereinsbank was the result of a private initiative by Munich-based and Augsburg-based court bankers, members of the nobility as well as common merchants in 1869. The fairy-tale king Ludwig II granted the initiative the concession to set up a company limited by shares under the name Bayerische Vereinsbank. Two years ago, it received permission for land-financing transactions and thus became a mixed institution, unlike most banks, Bayerische Vereinsbank was then allowed to carry out mortgage banking business operations in addition to the banking business. After the beginning of the 1950s, Bayerische Vereinsbank opened its first branch offices abroad, through the merger with the Bavarian Statebank, one of the largest banks in Germany emerged. Bayerische Vereinsbank also included Bayerische Handelsbank AG, Süddeutsche Bodencreditbank AG, the expansion of the banking group resulted from, amongst others, the merger with the Bankhaus Röchling and, in 1991, with Simonbank. During the 1960s, Bayerische Vereinsbank started to expand throughout Germany and abroad, Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank was founded in 1835 on the initiative of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. It was an institution from the very beginning, had the right to issue Pfandbriefs since 1864. Hypo-Bank also began to expand throughout Germany and internationally in the 1960s, in 1998, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank and Bayerische Vereinsbank, two institutions which were steeped in tradition, were merged to form Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank Aktiengesellschaft. Following the merger, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank followed the Bank of the Regions strategy and it expanded its network into the promising markets of Central and Eastern Europe
15.
Commerzbank
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Commerzbank AG is a global banking and financial services company founded in 1870 with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It offers its clients retail and commercial financing services, investment banking services, asset management, Commerzbank was founded in 1870 by individual and merchant bankers in Hamburg, Germany. Woermann was the first chairman of the board of Commerz- und Disconto-Bank from 1870. The bank grew through a series of over 50 mergers, acquisitions and restructures in the period through hyperinflation. In 1940, the name Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, by which the bank was known, was officially adopted. With the division of Europe after World War II, three banks were united in 1958 to form Commerzbank AG, which had its headquarters in Düsseldorf. Commerzbank stepped up its financing activities and started expanding around the globe. From 1970 onwards, the administrative activities were shifted to Frankfurt am Main. What was left of Commerzbank Securities was folded into a division of the bank called Corporates. To get “sustainable profitability”, in 2016 Commerzbank planned to cut 9,600 jobs or about a fifth of its workforce in 4 years, the Commerzbank Tower is the tallest building in Frankfurt and in Germany, measuring 300,1 m to the top of the antenna. The 56-story building was designed by British architect Norman Foster and was Europes first ecological skyscraper, for more than a decade, Commerzbank was involved in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars out of Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar, against US sanctions. Media related to Commerzbank at Wikimedia Commons Official website
16.
Dresdner Bank
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Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germanys largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009, Dresdner Bank was established on 12 November 1872 through the conversion of private bank Michael Kaskel. In the 1870s, Dresdner Bank acquired smaller regional institutes and several banks, the new branch in Berlin quickly exceeded the office in Dresden, therefore, the registered office moved to Berlin in 1884 leaving the place of jurisdiction in Dresden until 1950. After few new acquisitions, opened the first international branch in London in 1895, by 1900, Dresdner bank had the largest German branch network. In all, the Dresdner Bank had 27 branches, all, with the exception of the one in London, in addition it had one silent partner and 57 deposit offices,23 being in Berlin. In 1905 a close alliance was formed with the house of J. P. Morgan & Co. New York, for joint action in international finance and issue operations, operations in the orient and South America were carried on jointly in cooperation with the A. Schaaffhausenscher Bankverein. During the First World War, the London branch was forced to close, however, after the banking crisis in 1931 the German Reich owned 66% and Deutsche Golddiskontbank owned 22% of Dresdner Bank shares. Its deputy director was Dr Schacht, Minister of Economy under Nazism, the Bank was reprivatised in 1937. During World War II, Dresdner Bank controlled various banks in countries under German Occupation and it took over the Bohemian Discount Bank in Prague, the Societa Bancara Romana in Bucharest, the Handels- und Kreditbank in Riga, the Kontinentale Bank in Brussels, and Banque dAthenes. It maintained majority control of the Croatian Landerbank and the Kommerzialbank in Kraków and it took over the French interests in the Hungarian General Bank and the Greek Credit Bank, and it founded the Handelstrust West N. V. in Amsterdam. It also controlled Banque Bulgare de Commerce in Sofia and the Deutsche Orient-Bank in Turkey, as a result of World War II 80% of the Banks buildings were destroyed, costing the Bank 162 offices in 56 locations. Monetary reform and the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in 1948 helped return banking to normality. Dresdner Bank expanded its network with acquisition and opening new offices not only in Europe but also in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Dresdner Bank was the first to open its own office in former eastern Germany in Dresden on 2 January 1990, after the acquisition of Kleinwort Benson in 1995 to form its investment-banking arm Dresdner Kleinwort, Dresdner Bank took over the American investment bank Wasserstein Perella Group Inc. This investment banking unit was then renamed Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in 2002 Dresdner Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance corporation Allianz. In July 2006 Dresdner Kleinwort, dropped Wasserstein from their name and went through a re-organization of corporate bank, capital markets, the arm made up of Capital Markets and Investment Banking. In 2008 it was reported that Allianz was looking to dispose of Dresdner Bank, british banking group Lloyds TSB were amongst those rumoured to be interested
17.
Cash Group
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Cash Group is a cooperation of the four largest German private banks and their subsidiaries, in which they mutually waive ATM usage fees for their customers. It is not a network but uses the pre-existing girocard network. With more than 7000 ATMs, the cooperating banks ATM networks form the third largest ATM network in Germany, the cooperation was founded in 1998 and is generally not open to other members. Its primary competitor in Germany is CashPool, most banks in Germany, while connected through the girocard network, charge ATM usage fees for customers of other banks. Prior to 1998, the charge was fixed to 4,00 DM or 1%, as a consequence, banks now had to deal with different ATM usage charges from other banks but were legally required to make definite quotes to their customers. Most of them simply charged their customers with the maximum fee and pocketed the difference. After its formation, other German banks tried to become members of Cash Group but no bank was accepted by the existing members. Therefore, in 2000, several smaller German banks founded CashPool as an answer to Cash Group, today, CashPool is Cash Groups primary competitor in Germany. However, with more than 2,500 ATMs, and 29 member institutions it is significantly smaller, Norisbank GmbH, one of the current members of Cash Group, originally was a member of CashPool. It left CashPool and became a member of Cash Group after its acquisition by Deutsche Bank in 2006. KG, Berlin Comdirect bank AG, Quickborn DAB Bank AG, Munich Deutsche Bank Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG, Frankfurt am Main Norisbank GmbH, KG, Münster Oldenburgische Landesbank AG, Oldenburg Official website
18.
Cooperative banking
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Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world, Credit unions have the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at reasonable rates, and providing other financial services to its members. They are typically the smaller form of cooperative banking institution, in some countries they are restricted to providing only unsecured personal loans, whereas in others, they can provide business loans to farmers, and mortgages. Larger institutions are often called cooperative banks, some are tightly integrated federations of credit unions, though those member credit unions may not subscribe to all nine of the strict principles of the World Council of Credit Unions. Like credit unions, cooperative banks are owned by their customers and follow the principle of one person. Unlike credit unions, however, cooperative banks are regulated under both banking and cooperative legislation. They provide services such as savings and loans to non-members as well as to members, many cooperative banks are traded on public stock markets, with the result that they are partly owned by non-members. Member control is diluted by these outside stakes, so they may be regarded as semi-cooperative, Cooperative banking systems are also usually more integrated than credit union systems. Local branches of cooperative banks select their own boards of directors and manage their own operations, Credit unions usually retain strategic decision-making at a local level, though they share back-office functions, such as access to the global payments system, by federating. Some cooperative banks are criticized for diluting their cooperative principles, principles 2-4 of the Statement on the Co-operative Identity can be interpreted to require that members must control both the governance systems and capital of their cooperatives. A cooperative bank that raises capital on public stock markets creates a class of shareholders who compete with the members for control. In some circumstances, the members may lose control and this effectively means that the bank ceases to be a cooperative. Accepting deposits from non-members may also lead to a dilution of member control, the special banks providing Long Term Loans are called Land Development Banks, in the short, LDB. The history of LDB is quite old, the first LDB was started at Jhang in Punjab in 1920. This bank is based on Co-operative. The main objective of the LDBs are to promote the development of land, agriculture, the LDBs provide long-term finance to members directly through their branches. Building societies exist in Britain, Ireland and several Commonwealth countries and they are similar to credit unions in organisation, though few enforce a common bond. However, rather than promoting thrift and offering unsecured and business loans, borrowers and depositors are society members, setting policy and appointing directors on a one-member, one-vote basis
19.
Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken
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Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken is a brand of co-operative banks in Germany. Volksbank derives from Peoples Bank institutes and Raiffeisenbanken refers to banks founded on initiatives by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, the national association is the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken. The Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken has introduced the FinanzVerbund or Finanzverbund Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken combining a number of subsidiaries, nevertheless, most of the co-operative financial institutes have changed to the blue-orange color of the Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken brand. The Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken group in Germany is not associated with the Volksbank institutes in other countries, likewise Raiffeisen is more generic than banks and it is often used in other co-operation types in the farming industry, see Deutscher Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisenverband
20.
DZ Bank
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DZ Bank AG is the third largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for more than 1,000 co-operative banks and their 12,000 branch offices. DZ Bank is an acronym for Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, as a holding, the DZ Bank Group defines itself primarily as a service provider for the local cooperative banks and their 30 million or so clients. DZ Bank is a member of CIBP, EACB, the Euro Banking Association, DZ Bank is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and maintains branches, subsidiaries and representative offices in key financial centers and economic regions worldwide. The DZ Bank building in Berlin, located at Pariser Platz 3, was designed by architect Frank Gehry, DZ Bank also has one of the most significant collections of contemporary artistic photography which today comprises over 6,000 works by more than 550 artists. In 2016 DZ Bank was merged with WGZ Bank, the institute of the co-operative banks of Rhineland. Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken Official website
21.
German public bank
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The German banking system is structured in three different pillars, totally separated from each other. They typically differ in their form and the ownership. Private banks, represented by banks like Deutsche Bank or Commerzbank as listed companies, the second tier is composed of co-operative banks like the numerous Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken. They are based on a member-structure where each member, independently from its share, has one vote. The third tier consists of banks, which are a legally defined arm of the banking industry in Germany. They are further divided into two main groups, the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband represents the interests of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe on a national and international level concerning law and the financial services industry. It also coordinates, promotes and harmonises the interests of Sparkassen, based on OECD studies, the German public banking system had a share of 40% of total banking assets in Germany. This shows the important and significant role of group of banks in Germany. Public banks in Germany are financial institutes, typically held directly or indirectly by the sector, e. g. the federal government. Not all companies are publicly owned. They can also be defined as public by providing services out of a public interest, the public banks are represented through the Association of German Public Sector Banks as one of the leading associations in the German banking industry. The typical public bank acts as business development bank or international project, infrastructure, the Group of public development banks manage assets of EUR880.9 billion. In total,13.000 people work for the various institutions, Savings banks in German-speaking countries are called Sparkasse. They work as commercial banks in a decentralized structure, each savings bank is independent, locally managed and concentrates its business activities on customers in the region it is situated in. In general, savings banks are not profit oriented, shareholders of the savings banks are usually single cities or numerous cities in an administrative district. Some 6 savings banks are independent from municipalities, their association is the Verband der Deutschen Freien Öffentlichen Sparkassen, the first savings banks in Germany were founded at the beginning of the 18th century in its major trading cities. One of the first institutions with the model of modern savings banks was the Ersparungscasse der Hamburgischen Allgemeinen Versorgungsanstalt in Hamburg in 1778. Founders were rich merchants, clerks and academics and they intended to develop solutions for people with low income to save small sums of money and to support business start-ups
22.
Debit card
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A debit card is a plastic payment card that can be used instead of cash when making purchases. It is similar to a card, but unlike a credit card. Some cards may bear a stored value with which a payment is made, in some cases, the primary account number is assigned exclusively for use on the Internet and there is no physical card. In many countries, the use of cards has become so widespread that their volume has overtaken or entirely replaced cheques and, in some instances. The development of debit cards, unlike credit cards and charge cards, has generally been country specific resulting in a number of different systems around the world, which were often incompatible. Since the mid-2000s, a number of initiatives have allowed debit cards issued in one country to be used in countries and allowed their use for internet. Unlike credit and charge cards, payments using a card are immediately transferred from the cardholders designated bank account. Debit cards usually also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash, merchants may also offer cashback facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase. There are currently three ways that debit card transactions are processed, EFTPOS, offline debit and the Electronic Purse Card System, One physical card can include the functions of all three types, so that it can be used in a number of different circumstances. Some debit cards are branded with the logo of the national card as well as Maestro. The use of a card system allows operators to package their product more effectively while monitoring customer spending. Online debit cards require electronic authorization of every transaction and the debits are reflected in the user’s account immediately, some on-line debit systems are using the normal authentication processes of Internet banking to provide real-time on-line debit transactions. Offline debit cards have the logos of major credit cards or major debit cards and are used at the point of sale like a credit card. This type of debit card may be subject to a daily limit, transactions conducted with offline debit cards require 2–3 days to be reflected on users’ account balances. Smart-card-based electronic purse systems are in use throughout Europe since the mid-1990s, most notably in Germany, Austria, in Austria and Germany, almost all current bank cards now include electronic purses, whereas the electronic purse has been recently phased out in the Netherlands. Those prepaid debit cards that can be reloaded are also called reloadable debit cards, the primary market for prepaid debit cards has traditionally been unbanked people, that is, people who do not use banks or credit unions for their financial transactions. But prepaid cards also appeal to other users attracted by their advantages, and if a user has doubts about online security, using a prepaid debit card for online purchases protects their normal credit card from risk. If the card provider offers a website for letting you check the cards balance
23.
Credit card
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The card issuer creates a revolving account and grants a line of credit to the cardholder, from which the cardholder can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance. A credit card is different from a card, where it requires the balance to be repaid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers a continuing balance of debt, a credit card also differs from a cash card, which can be used like currency by the owner of the card. Credit cards have a printed or embossed bank card number complying with the ISO/IEC7812 numbering standard, the card numbers prefix, called the Bank Identification Number, is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the number that determine the bank to which a credit card number belongs. This is the first six digits for MasterCard and Visa cards, the next nine digits are the individual account number, and the final digit is a validity check code. Both of these standards are maintained and further developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17/WG1, Credit cards have a magnetic stripe conforming to the ISO/IEC7813. Many modern credit cards have a chip embedded in them as a security feature. In addition to the credit card number, credit cards also carry issue and expiration dates, as well as extra codes such as issue numbers. Not all credit cards have the sets of extra codes nor do they use the same number of digits. The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward. Bellamy used the credit card eleven times in this novel, although this referred to a card for spending a citizens dividend from the government. Charge coins and other items were used from the late 19th century to the 1930s. They came in various shapes and sizes, with materials made out of celluloid, copper, aluminum, steel, each charge coin usually had a little hole, enabling it to be put in a key ring, like a key. These charge coins were given to customers who had charge accounts in department stores, hotels. A charge coin usually had the account number along with the merchants name. The charge coin offered a simple and fast way to copy a charge account number to the sales slip and this sped the process of copying, previously done by handwriting. It also reduced the number of errors, by having a form of numbers on the sales slip. Because the customers name was not on the coin, almost anyone could use it
24.
Visa Inc.
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Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Foster City, California, United States. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, in 2015, the Nilson Report, a publication that tracks the credit card industry, found that Visa’s global network processed 100 billion transactions with a total volume of US$6.8 trillion. Visa has operations across all continents worldwide with the exception of Antarctica, every transaction is checked past 500 variables including 100 fraud-detection parameters—such as the location and spending habits of the customer and the merchants location - before being accepted. Visa is the second largest card payment organization, after being surpassed by China UnionPay in 2015, based on annual value of card payments transacted. Because UnionPays size is based primarily on the size of its market, Visa is dominant in the rest of the world outside of China. In mid-September 1958, Bank of America launched its BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California, the original idea was the brainchild of BofAs in-house product development think tank, the Customer Services Research Group, and its leader, Joseph P. Williams. Williams convinced senior BofA executives in 1956 to let him pursue what became the worlds first successful mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards to a large population. Williams pioneering accomplishment was that he brought about the implementation of the all-purpose credit card. The need for a financial instrument was already evident to the American financial services industry. There were already charge cards like Diners Club, and by the mid-1950s, however, these prior attempts had been carried out by small banks which lacked the resources to make them work. Fresno was selected for its population of 250,000, BofAs market share of that population, the 1958 test at first went smoothly, but then BofA panicked when it confirmed rumors that another bank was about to initiate its own drop in San Francisco, BofAs home market. However, the program was riddled with problems, as Williams had been too earnest and trusting in his belief in the goodness of the banks customers. 22% of accounts were delinquent, not the 4% expected, BofA officially lost over $8.8 million on the launch of BankAmericard, but when the full cost of advertising and overhead was included, the banks actual loss was probably around $20 million. However, after Williams and some of his closest associates left, BofA itself could not expand directly into other states due to federal restrictions not repealed until 1994. Over the following 11 years, various banks licensed the system from Bank of America. During the late 1960s, BofA also licensed the BankAmericard program to banks in other countries. For example, In Canada, an alliance of banks issued credit cards under the Chargex name from 1968 to 1977, in France, it was known as Carte Bleue. The logo still appears on many French-issued Visa cards today, in Japan, The Sumitomo Bank issued BankAmericards through the Sumitomo Credit Service
25.
MasterCard
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The Global Operations Headquarters is located in OFallon, Missouri, United States, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Mastercard Worldwide has been a traded company since 2006. Prior to its public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that issue its branded cards. From 1966 to 1979, Mastercard was called Interbank and Master Charge, the original banks behind MasterCard were United California Bank, Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank, and the Bank of California. In 1966, the group of California banks formed the Interbank Card Association. With the help of New Yorks Marine Midland Bank, now HSBC Bank USA, the card was given a significant boost in 1969, when First National City Bank joined, merging its proprietary Everything Card with Master Charge. In 1968, the ICA and Eurocard started an alliance, which effectively allowed the ICA access to the European market. The Access card system from the United Kingdom joined the ICA/Eurocard alliance in 1972, in December 1979, Master Charge, The Interbank Card was renamed simply MasterCard. In the early 1990s MasterCard then bought the British Access card, in October 2002, MasterCard International merged with Europay International SA, another large credit-card issuer association, which for many years issued cards under the name Eurocard. In Mid-2006, MasterCard International underwent another change to MasterCard Worldwide. This was done in order to suggest a more global scale of operations, in addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo adding a third circle to the two that had been used in the past. A new corporate tagline was introduced at the time, The Heart of Commerce. In August 2010, MasterCard expanded its offering with the acquisition of DataCash. In March 2012, MasterCard announced the expansion of its mobile contactless payments program, in September 2014, MasterCard acquired Australian leading rewards program manager company Pinpoint for an undisclosed amount. MasterCard teamed with Apple in September 2014, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apples new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their MasterCard, and other credit cards. The company, which had organized as a cooperative of banks, had an initial public offering on May 25,2006 at 39.00 USD. The stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol MA with the market capitalization of $105. 15B, MasterCard, along with Visa, has been sued in a class action by ATM operators that claims the credit card networks rules effectively fix ATM access fees. The suit claims that this is a restraint on trade in violation of federal law, the lawsuit was filed by the National ATM Council and independent operators of automated teller machines
26.
Diners Club International
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Diners Club International, founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider, Matty Simmons, and Alfred Bloomingdale. It was the first independent credit card company in the world, Diners Club International and its franchises service affluent and well-travelled individuals from around the globe, with operations in 59 countries. The idea for Diners Club was conceived at the Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York City in 1949, Diners Club cofounder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and realized he had left his wallet in another suit. His wife paid the tab, and McNamara thought of a charge card as a way to avoid similar embarrassments in the future. He discussed the idea with the restaurant owner at the table, McNamara returned to the same restaurant the following February and paid for his meal using a cardboard charge card and a signature. The story became well-known and is credited by historians as the beginnings of contemporary credit, some journalists later credited Alfred Bloomingdale with the idea for Diners Club. McNamara and his attorney, Ralph Schneider, founded Diners Club International on February 8,1950, Alfred Bloomingdale joined briefly, then started a competing venture in California before merging his California-based Dine and Sign with Diners Club. Diners Club International was named for being a club of diners that would allow patrons to settle their bill at the end of each month through their credit account. When the card was first introduced, Diners Club listed 27 participating restaurants, Diners Club had 20,000 members by the end of 1950 and 42,000 by the end of 1951. At the time, the company was charging participating establishments seven percent, in 1952, McNamara sold his interest in Diners Club to his partners for $200,000. The first plastic Diners Club card was introduced in 1961, by the mid-1960s, Diners Club International was acquired by Citigroup in 1981 and by Discover Financial Services in April 2008. Diners Clubs monopoly was short-lived, as American Express and Carte Blanche began to compete with Diners Club in the travel, American Express now dominates the member card arena, providing millions of customers with cards that require the monthly balance to be paid in full. Towards the end of the 1960s, Diners Club also faced competition from banks that issued revolving credit cards through BankAmericard, and Interbank Master Charge. Starting in 1968, Amoco also issued for a time its own co-branded Diners Club cards called American Torch Club, and Sun Oil Company issued its version called Sun Diner Club Card starting in 1977. In 1981, Citibank, a unit of Citigroup, acquired Diners Club International, the franchisor that holds rights to the Diners Club trademark, a majority of the franchises abroad remain independently owned. In a transaction completed July 1,2008, Discover Financial Services purchased Diners Club International from Citibank for $165 million, the deal was announced in April 2008 and approved by the U. S. government in May 2008. By merging the North American Discover Network with the international Diners Club Network, Discover Bank has no plans to issue Diners Club-branded cards, which continue to be issued by Diners Club International licensees. In 2011, Discover began putting its logo on Diners Club cards, some payment processors, like PayPal, can process only new Diners Club cards, bearing the Discover logo
27.
American Express
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The American Express Company, also known as Amex, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattans Three World Financial Center in New York City, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and travelers cheque businesses. Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US. BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 22nd most valuable brand in the world, Fortune listed Amex as one of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the World. The companys logo, adopted in 1958, is a Centurion whose image appears on the travelers cheques, charge cards. In 1850, American Express was started as an express business in Buffalo. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the companies owned by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo. Wells and Fargo also started Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 when Butterfield, American Express initially established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of Jay Street and Hudson Street in what was later called the Tribeca section of Manhattan. For years it enjoyed a monopoly on the movement of express shipments throughout New York State. In 1874, American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in what was becoming the Financial District of Manhattan, in 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. A stable was constructed in 1867, five blocks north at 4–8 Hubert Street, in 1880, American Express built a new warehouse behind the Broadway Building at 46 Trinity Place. The designer is unknown, but it has a façade of brick arches that are reminiscent of pre-skyscraper New York, American Express has long been out of this building, but it still bears a terracotta seal with the American Express Eagle. In 1890–91 the company constructed a new building by Edward H. Kendall on the site of its former headquarters on Hudson Street. By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, to reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site. The old buildings, dubbed by the New York Times as among the ancient landmarks of lower Broadway, were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern, after some delays due to the war in Europe, the 21-story neo-classical American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916–17 to the design of James L. Aspinwall, of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker, the building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address,65 Broadway. This building was part of the Express Row section of lower Broadway at the time, kenny, and Standard & Poors, who has renamed the building for itself. American Express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other companies, railroads
28.
Maestro (debit card)
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Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by Mastercard that was founded in 1992. Maestro cards are obtained from banks and can be linked to the card holders current account. Maestro often requires on-line electronic authorization for every transaction, although Mastercards rules permit the establishment of floor limits on Maestro EMV chip transactions only. This is different from most other debit and credit cards, where the information can be entered manually into the terminal and still be approved by the issuer or stand-in processor. In most countries, other than specified in Mastercards rules. Maestro is accepted at around fifteen million point of sale outlets, in Germany and Austria, Maestro replaced the Eurocheque system. Austrian Maestro cards are always pure Maestro cards. German Maestro cards, however, are in most cases co-branded with the German Girocard logo, in Belgium, Maestro cards are co-branded with the Belgian Bancontact logo. In the United Kingdom, the former Switch debit card system was re-branded as Maestro, underneath the branding, however, the system was still the old Switch one and the cards were still fundamentally Switch. In 2011, MasterCard aligned UK Domestic Maestro with the standard international Maestro proposition and this change also led to the discontinuation of the Solo. In January 2009 First Direct and HSBC discontinued the use of Maestro card, issuing Visa Debit cards to new customers, likewise, in the same month the Royal Bank of Scotland Group switched from Maestro to Visa Debit, a process that took two years to complete. This effectively meant that only a few smaller UK banks would be issuing Maestro cards, in 2015, Bank of Ireland UK replaced its Maestro debit cards with Visa Debit cards. In Ireland, Laser, which was co-branded with Maestro, has replaced by Visa Debit and Debit MasterCard. The Laser debit card has been phased out by all banks, Irish Laser cards carried Maestro co-branding from 2008 onwards. They were intended to be used with chip and PIN POS systems, the chip on the card was programmed with two applications, one for Laser and one for Maestro. POS transactions were processed over the Laser network in Ireland. Some POS terminals prompted users to manually select Laser or Maestro before completing the transaction, Laser cards could be processed as Maestro in most POS terminals worldwide for chip and PIN or swipe and sign transactions. Internet and telephone-based retailers, however, needed to be set up specifically to accept Irish Laser/Maestro cards, transactions made with these cards were often secured by MasterCards SecureCode system to verify the cardholders identity
29.
Economy of Germany
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Germany is the largest national economy in Europe, the fourth-largest by nominal GDP in the world, and fifth by GDP. The country is a member of the European Union and the Eurozone. The economic model of Germany is based on the concept of the market economy. In 2016, Germany recorded the highest trade surplus in the world worth $310 billion, Germany is the third largest exporter in the world with 1.21 trillion euros in goods and services exported in 2016. The service sector contributes around 70% of the total GDP, industry 29. 1%, exports account for 41% of national output. Germany is rich in timber, iron ore, potash, salt, uranium, nickel, copper, energy in Germany is sourced predominantly by fossil fuels, followed by nuclear power second, then gas, wind, biomass, hydro and solar. Germany is the first major industrialized nation to commit to the energy transition called Energiewende. Germany is the producer of wind turbines in the world. Renewables now produce over 27% of electricity consumed in Germany,99 percent of all German companies belong to the German Mittelstand, small and medium-sized enterprises, which are mostly family-owned. ON, Bayer, and RWE. Germany is the top location for trade fairs. Around two thirds of the leading trade fairs take place in Germany. The largest annual trade fairs and congresses are held in several German cities such as Hanover, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig. The Industrial Revolution in Germany occurred a century later than in England, France, the establishment of the Deutscher Zollverein and the expansion of railway systems were the main drivers of Germanys industrial revolution and political union. In 1834, tariff barriers between German states were eliminated, between 1845 and 1870,5,000 more miles of rail had been built and in 1850 Germany was building its own locomotives. Over time, other German states joined the union and started linking their railroads. Another factor which propelled German industry forward was the unification of the monetary system, the Deutsche Mark was introduced in 1871, a new monetary coinage system backed by gold. However, this system did not fully come into use as silver coins retained their value until 1907, the victory of Prussia over Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War marked the end of French hegemony in Europe and resulted in the creation of the German Empire in 1871. Regarding politics and society, between 1881 and 1889 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck promoted laws that provided insurance and improved working conditions
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History of Germany
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Following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Franks conquered the other West Germanic tribes. When the Frankish Empire was divided among Charlemagnes heirs in 843, in 962, Otto I became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the medieval German state. In the High Middle Ages, the dukes, princes. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church after 1517, as the states became Protestant. The two parts of the Holy Roman Empire clashed in the Thirty Years War, which was ruinous to the twenty million civilians living in both states. The Thirty Years War brought tremendous destruction to Germany, more than 1/4 of the population,1648 marked the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern nation-state system, with Germany divided into numerous independent states, such as Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, feudalism fell away, the Industrial Revolution modernized the German economy, led to the rapid growth of cities and to the emergence of the Socialist movement in Germany. Prussia, with its capital Berlin, grew in power, German universities became world-class centers for science and the humanities, while music and the arts flourished. The new Reichstag, a parliament, had only a limited role in the imperial government. Germany joined the other powers in colonial expansion in Africa and the Pacific, Germany was the dominant power on the continent. By 1900, its rapidly expanding industrial economy passed Britains, allowing a naval race, Germany led the Central Powers in World War I against France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States. Defeated and partly occupied, Germany was forced to pay war reparations by the Treaty of Versailles and was stripped of its colonies as well as Polish areas and Alsace-Lorraine. The German Revolution of 1918–19 deposed the emperor and the kings and princes, leading to the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In the early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression hit Germany hard, as unemployment soared, in 1933, the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler came to power and quickly established a totalitarian regime. Political opponents were killed or imprisoned, after forming a pact with the Soviet Union in 1939, Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe. After a Phoney War in spring 1940 the German blitzkrieg swept Scandinavia, only the British Commonwealth and Empire stood opposed, along with Greece. Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in 1942, the German invasion of the Soviet Union faltered, and after the United States had entered the war, Britain became the base for massive Anglo-American bombings of German cities. Germany fought the war on multiple fronts through 1942–1944, however following the Allied invasion of Normandy, millions of ethnic Germans fled from Communist areas into West Germany, which experienced rapid economic expansion, and became the dominant economy in Western Europe
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Military history of Germany
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While German-speaking people have a long history, Germany as a nation state dates only from 1871. Earlier periods are subject to definition debates, the Franks, for instance, were a union of Germanic tribes, nevertheless, some of the Franks later identified themselves as Dutch, Flemish, French and again others as Germans. The capital of medieval ruler Charlemagnes empire was the city of Aachen, now part of Germany, France was named after the Franks and the Dutch and Flemish people are the only ones to speak a language that descends from Frankish. Hence nearly all continental Western European historians can claim his victories as their heritage, the Holy Roman Empire he founded was largely but far from entirely German speaking. The Kingdom of Prussia, which unified Germany in the 19th century, had significant territory in what is now Poland, in the early 19th century, the philosopher Schlegel referred to Germany as a Kulturnation, a nation of shared culture and political disunity, analogous to ancient Greece. Until the unification of 1871, Austria was considered a part of Germany even though much of its empire was not in the Holy Roman Empire and was non-German, during the ancient and early medieval periods the Germanic tribes had no written language. What we know about their military history comes from accounts written in Latin. Germanic wars against the Romans are fairly well documented from the Roman perspective, Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded the events. Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Nordic Bronze Age in northern Germany, the tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of that area. They crossed the River Elbe, probably overrunning the territories of the Celtic Volcae in the Weser Basin, the Romans recorded one of these early migrations when the Cimbri and the Teutons tribes threatened the Republic itself around the late 2nd century BC. In the East, other tribes, such as Goths, Rugii and Vandals, settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea pushing southward, the Angles and Saxons migrated to England. It was never a state, from the beginning it was made up of many ethnicities and languages. Its unifying characteristic was its Carolingian heritage and strong religious connotations, its claim to German-ness the ethnicity of most of its subjects, from 919-36, the Germanic peoples were united under Henry the Fowler, then Duke of Saxony, who took the title of King. For the first time, the term Kingdom of the Germans was applied to the Frankish kingdom, in 955, the Hungarians were decisively defeated at Lechfeld by his son Otto the Great, ending the threat from the Eurasian steppes for four centuries. In 962, partly on the strength of victory, Otto went to Rome and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope. By 1155, the German states had descended into disorder, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa managed to restore peace through diplomacy and skillfully arranged marriages. He claimed direct control over Italy and made several incursions into northern Italy. In 1189, Frederick embarked on the Third Crusade, after a few initial successes against the Turks, notably at the Battle of Iconium, Frederick died when trying to cross a river
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Germanic peoples
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The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
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Migration Period
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The Migration Period was a time of widespread migrations within or into Europe in the middle of the first millennium AD. It has also been termed the Völkerwanderung and, from the Roman, many of the migrations were movements of Germanic, Slavic, and other peoples into the territory of the then Roman Empire, with or without accompanying invasions or war. Although immigration was common throughout the time of the Roman Empire, later invasions, also had significant effects, however, they are outside the scope of the Migration Period. Germanic peoples moved out of southern Scandinavia and Germany to the adjacent lands between the Elbe and Oder after 1000 BC. The first wave moved westward and southward, moving into southern Germany up to the Roman provinces of Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul by 100 BC and it is this western group which was described by the Roman historian Tacitus and Julius Caesar. A later wave of Germanic tribes migrated eastward and southward from Scandinavia between 600 and 300 BC to the opposite coast of the Baltic Sea, moving up the Vistula near the Carpathians, the Barbarian Invasions may be divided into two phases. The first phase, occurring between AD300 and 500, is documented by Greek and Latin historians but difficult to verify archaeologically. It puts Germanic peoples in control of most areas of what was then the Western Roman Empire, the Tervingi entered Roman territory in 376. Some time thereafter in Marcianopolis, the escort to Fritigern was killed while meeting with Lupicinus, fending off challenges from the Allemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom became the nucleus of what would later become France and Germany. The initial Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain occurred during the fifth century, the Burgundians settled in North Western Italy, Switzerland and Eastern France in the fifth century. The second phase took place between 500 and 700 and saw Slavic tribes settling in central and eastern Europe, gradually making it predominantly Slavic, additionally, Turkic tribes such as the Avars became involved in this phase. In 567, the Avars and the Lombards destroyed much of the Gepid Kingdom, the Lombards, a Germanic people, settled in Italy with their Herulian, Suebian, Gepid, Thuringian, Bulgarian, Sarmatian and Saxon allies in the 6th century. They were later followed by the Bavarians and the Franks, who conquered and ruled most of Italy, during the Khazar–Arab Wars, the Khazars stopped the Arab expansion into Europe across the Caucasus. At the same time, the Moors invaded Europe via Gibraltar and these battles broadly demarcated the frontiers between Christendom and Islam for the next millennium. The following centuries saw the Muslims successful in conquering most of Sicily from the Christians by 902, the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin from around 895, and the Viking expansion from the late 8th century conventionally mark the last large movements of the period. Christianity gradually converted the non-Islamic newcomers and integrated them into the medieval Christian order, a number of contemporary historical references worldwide refer to an extended period of extreme weather during 535–536. Evidence of this period is also found in dendrochronology and ice cores. The consequences of this period are debated
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