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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, nearly 150 financial service institutions and approx. 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 2007 was approx. EUR 19.0 billion. This represents an increase of 13.7 percent within ten years.
The importance of the industry is also reflected in the number of jobs it provides: 213,000 employees work in finance in NRW, including about 135,000 in banking. The insurance trade in particular is strongly represented, with around 75,000 employees and therefore a quarter of all insurance employees in Germany. The city of Cologne is not only the oldest, but with 26,520 employees also one of the largest insurance locations in Germany.
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 60 billion in 2008, the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange is one of the leading stock exchanges in Germany. Cologne is home to major foreign insurance companies.
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