# Landesbank

In German-speaking jurisdictions, Landesbank (plural Landesbanken), lit. 'bank of the Land', refers to a category of public sector banks that are owned by one or more of the Länder (federated internally self-governing states). Institutions of this type exist in most German states, as well as Austria and Switzerland.

## Austria-Hungary

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy, Landesbanken were government-sponsored banks established in some of the kingdoms and lands of the crown:
* Landesbank des Königreichs Galizien und Lodomerien mit dem Grossherzogtum Krakau, est. 1883 in Lemberg (now Lviv) for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the Grand Duchy of Kraków
* Landesbank des Königreiches Böhmen, est. 1890 in Prague for the Kingdom of Bohemia
* Landesbank für Bosnien und Herzegowina, est. 1895 in Sarajevo for Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule
* Bukowinaer Landesbank, est. 1905 in Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi) for the Duchy of Bukovina
* Kroatische Landesbank, est. 1909 in Esseg (now Osijek) for the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
* Krainische Landesbank, est. 1912 in Laibach (now Ljubljana) for the Duchy of Carniola
By contrast, Vienna's Länderbank (est. 1880) and its short-lived affiliate the Ungarische Landesbank (1881-1887) were private-sector initiatives. The name Landesbank also survives in regional entities of the cooperative Raiffeisen Group in Austria and, similarly, the Raiffeisen Landesbank Südtirol – Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell'Alto Adige in the Italian region of South Tyrol.
* Former Galizische Landesbank in Lviv, 2015
* Former Böhmische Landesbank in Prague, 2020
* Former Bosnische Landesbank in Sarajevo, 2006
* Former Bukowinaer Landesbank in Chernivtsi, 2010

## Germany

The current Landesbanken are part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, one of the three pillars of Germany's banking system. Their business is predominantly wholesale banking, partly to serve local savings banks (German: Sparkassen). With a few exceptions, Landesbanken and Sparkassen are chartered by national and state banking laws to pursue a public purpose (German: öffentlicher Auftrag). As of late 2022, they are:
* Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) in Stuttgart, covering Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony
* Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) in Munich, covering Bavaria
* Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) in Frankfurt and Erfurt, covering Brandenburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Thuringia
* Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) in Hanover, covering Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein
* Landesbank Saar (SaarLB) in Saarbrücken, covering Saarland
* Logo of LBBW
* Logo of BayernLB
* Logo of Helaba
* Logo of NORD/LB
* Logo of SaarLB
Four other German institutions are named Landesbank without playing the role of the above five within the public sector:
* Landesbank Berlin (LBB) was converted into a joint-stock company (German: Aktiengesellschaft) in 2007, when the DSGV rescued it and took full ownership of its share capital; it is part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe
* Hohenzollerische Landesbank Kreissparkasse Sigmaringen [de] is a local public savings bank, part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe; its earliest predecessor was established in 1834 as Spar- und Leihkasse für das Fürstentum Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and was renamed Hohenzollerische Landesbank Spar- und Leihkasse in 1930
* Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld [de], another local public savings bank within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, is also occasionally referred to as Birkenfelder Landesbank because one of its predecessor entities was a local branch of Oldenburgische Landesbank, opened in Birkenfeld in 1914
* Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB, est. 1869) has always been a private-sector bank, controlled since 2017 by Apollo Global Management.
* Landesbank Berlin head office in Berlin, 2009
* Hohenzollerische Landesbank Kreissparkasse in Sigmaringen, 2015
* Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld in Idar-Oberstein, 2009
* Oldenburgische Landesbank in Oldenburg, 2010

## Liechtenstein

The German name of the National Bank of Liechtenstein is Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG.