The balance sheet structure of the
commercial banks by sub-group

The commercial banks are an extremely heterogeneous group of banks. This category comprises the five big banks, the regional banks (including the private bankers) and the legally dependent branches of foreign banks. These banks often differ quite considerably in the main focus of their business operations. This even applies within the small sub-group of big banks.

% of balance sheet total   All comm. banks   Big banks   Regional banks   Branches of foreign banks Loans to banks   31.1   31.9   25.6   53.8 Loans to non-banks   42.2   39.4   49.3   35.5 Securities holdings   16.2   16.2   18.0   5.7 Deposits of banks   32.9   33.2   27.7   61.4 Deposits of non-banks   38.7   36.9   45.9   17.7 Bearer debt securities   11.2   13.0   9.0   0.0 Regulatory capital   4.8   4.4   6.1   2.8

Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, figs. for year-end 2004.

All in all, however, the differences between the big banks and the regional banks are relatively minor compared to those between these two sub-groups and the branches of foreign banks. The latter are extremely active on the interbank market. They maintain only small securities portfolios and do far less business with non-banks, though this has increased sharply in the last few years.

Due to their size and presence throughout Germany, the big banks are much more active than the regional banks on the interbank market. Loans to, and deposits of, non-banks consequently make up a higher proportion of the balance sheet total of the regional banks.