HypoVereinsbank (HVB), legally registered since late 2008 as UniCredit Bank AG, is a significant bank in Germany headquartered in Munich. It has been part of the Milan-based UniCredit group since 2005, and fully owned by it since 2008. As a consequence, HVB is operating exclusively in Germany, where it mainly focuses on private clients business and corporate banking, customer-related capital market activities and wealth management.
HypoVereinsbank's predecessor entities include financial institutions that played major roles in the financial history of Bavaria, including the Bavarian State Bank (1780-1971), Hypo-Bank (1835-1998), Bayerische Vereinsbank (1869-1998), and Bayerische Notenbank (1875-1934).
History
Bavarian Royal Bank / State Bank
In 1780, Margrave Alexander of Brandenburg-Ansbach, inspired by the example of Prussia's in Berlin, founded the Hochfürstlich-Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuthische Hofbanco () in Ansbach, using a small amount of 15,000 guilders as operating capital. The margrave resorted to this plan for economic reasons, as he wanted to avoid the fees charged by the foreign banks and access the aid funds provided by England for his soldier trade. The American Revolutionary 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. In 1792, the Principality of Ansbach was taken over by Prussia and the bank was renamed . In 1806, Ansbach became part of Bavaria and the bank became , then as its seat was relocated to Nuremberg in 1807. It opened operations in Würzburg in 1835, then in Augsburg and Munich in 1875, the latter known as the Royal Subsidiary Bank ().
The end of the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918 saw the renaming of the bank to (). It was eventually acquired by the Vereinsbank in 1971.
Hypo-Bank
The , full name Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank (), was founded by law of on the initiative of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and started operations on . In 1836, it was granted the privilege to issue notes in Bavaria, which it kept until the creation of the Reichsbank in 1875. It also had the right to issue Pfandbriefs from 1864, eventually developing into the largest mortgage bank in Germany in the late 19th century.
During the Nazi era, the Hypo-Bank, which had a large Jewish customer base, was initially reluctant to display enthusiasm for the regime but had to implement the official aryanization policy from 1938. Following the end of World War II, it was the first bank in Germany with which citizens of the newly founded state of Israel voluntarily resumed business relationships. Hypo-Bank began to expand throughout Germany and internationally in the 1960s.
Bayerische Vereinsbank
The () was the result of a private initiative by Munich- and Augsburg-based court bankers, members of the nobility as well as common merchants in 1869, for which King Ludwig II granted a concession to set up a public company limited by shares. Two years later, it received permission for land-financing transactions. Bayerische Vereinsbank was then allowed to carry out mortgage banking business operations in addition to other banking business. In the 1950s and 1960s, Bayerische Vereinsbank started to expand throughout Germany and abroad. In 1971 it acquired the Bavarian State Bank, in 1978 in Saarbrücken, and in 1991, (also known as Simonbank) in Düsseldorf. By 1997, it had become the fifth-largest bank in Germany after Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, WestLB, and Commerzbank.
Bayerische Notenbank
In 1875, the monetary unification reform that created the Reichsbank allowed local bank to keep issuing legal-tender banknotes, but restricted the commercial activities in which such banks could engage, including mortgage lending. As a consequence, Hypo-Bank decided to relinquish its note-issuing role and to transfer it into an entity specifically created for that purpose, the (). Two thirds of the new bank's capital was issued to the existing shareholders of Hypo-Bank, with Hypo-Bank and the Bavarian government each taking an additional one-sixth. By 1890, the Bayerische Notenbank had a network of six main branches in Augsburg, Kempten, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Würzburg, and Ludwigshafen in the Bavarian Circle of the Rhine, complemented by 28 smaller agencies.
On , as a consequence of a reform that terminated all remaining local note-issuance privileges in Germany, the Bayerische Notenbank was absorbed by the Bavarian State Bank.
Stand-alone HypoVereinsbank (1998-2005)