This paper aspires to provide an overview of the issue of diversity of banking and financial systems and its development over time from a positive and a normative perspective. In other word: how different are banks within a given country and how much do banking systems and entire financial...

The financial crisis of 2007-08 has stressed the importance of a sound financial system. Unlike other studies weighing the pros and cons of market versus bank-based systems, this paper investigates whether the main elements of the German financial system can be regarded as complementary and...

The German savings and cooperative banks of the 19th century were precursors of modern microfinance. They provided access to financial services for the majority of the German population, which was formerly excluded from bank funding. Furthermore, they did this at low costs for themselves and...

Until about 25 years ago, almost all European countries had a so-called "three pillar" banking system comprising private banks, (public) savings banks and (mutual) cooperative banks. Since that time, several European countries have implemented far-reaching changes in their banking systems, which...

This Paper gives an overview of the German banking system and current challenges it is facing. It starts with an overview of the so-called "Three-Pillar-Banking-System" and a detailed description of the current structure of the banking system in Germany. A brief comparison of the banking system...

The paper provides an overview and an economic analysis of the development of the corporate governance of German banks since the 1950s, highlighting peculiarities - as seen from the meanwhile prevailing standard model perspective - of the German case. These peculiarities refer to the specific...