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Finance – an economic sector that most people would associate with Frankfurt – plays an important role in North Rhine-Westphalia: Approx. 400 credit institutions, i.e. banks, savings banks, home loan banks, etc., have their headquarters in NRW. This puts the federal state in second place behind Bavaria. In addition, approx. 150 financial service institutions and more than 200 insurance companies are based here.
One of the most important banks in NRW is Landesbank WestLB, a European commercial bank deeply rooted in the state. NRW.BANK is the largest German state promotional bank. Amongst other things, it supports start-ups and small businesses. Traditional private banks include Sal. Oppenheim in Cologne and HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt in Düsseldorf. Since the merger of the Cologne and Bonn municipal savings banks, the region now boasts Germany's largest municipal savings bank.
The gross value added of the credit and insurance industry in NRW in 2006 was EUR 19.0 billion. This represents an increase of 10.5 percent within ten years. By comparison, the gross domestic product rose by 19.5 percent in the same period.
The importance of the industry is also reflected in the number of jobs it provides: 216,000 employees work in finance in NRW, including about 136,600 in banking. The insurance trade in particular is strongly represented, with around 76,440 employees and therefore a quarter of all insurance employees in Germany. The city of Cologne is not only the oldest, but with 26,450 employees also the second-largest insurance location in Germany after Munich.
Finance in NRW also enjoys a good reputation at an international level: Düsseldorf, for example,is an important location for Japanese banksand with sales of EUR 260 billion, the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange is one of the leading stock exchanges in Germany. Cologne is home to major foreign insurance companies.
