By chronological order of inception (not including
postal savings systems): •
Germany: while the , est. 1778 in
Hamburg, was a philanthropic endeavor, the dominant model for German savings banks has been sponsorship by local government, starting in
Göttingen in 1801. In the early 20th century, savings banks created regional clearing entities, later known as
Landesbanks, soon followed by the national
Deutsche Girozentrale (est. 1918). The German savings banks sector is currently operating as a group with some centralized functions but decentralized organization, the
Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe which relies on a group-wide
institutional protection scheme. •
Switzerland: an early savings bank () was established in
Bern in 1787. The oldest one still extant is
Sparkasse Schwyz (est. 1812). As of 2022, there were 59 forming a decentralized network. •
United Kingdom: the
Ruthwell Savings Bank (est. 1810) is often referred to as the first British savings bank, with competing claims about the
Tottenham Female Benefit Club and Children's Bank (est. 1798 by philanthropist
Priscilla Wakefield) and the
Edinburgh Bank for Savings (est. 1814). In the 1970s and 1980s, surviving British savings banks consolidated into the
Trustee Savings Bank, which merged with
Lloyds Bank in 1995, was again spun off as
TSB Bank in 2013, and was acquired by Spain's
Banco Sabadell in 2015. •
Denmark: Holsteinsborg Saving Bank was established in 1810 in
Skælskør. The Danish savings banks established a common national entity, the , in 1949. Their number declined from over 500 in the 1930s to a bit above 100 by the late 1980s. In 1986-1991, Fællesbanken was dismantled and its components acquired respectively by
Hafnia Insurance,
Sydbank and
Sparekassen Bikuben, the latter a major savings bank that was eventually merged into
Danske Bank in 2000. The other major savings bank, , merged in 1990 into what in 2000 became
Nordea. The remaining savings banks in 1993 joined other smaller Danish commercial and cooperative banks to form a single association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Cooperative Banks in Denmark, or . •
Ireland: the first Irish
trustee savings bank was founded in
Waterford in 1816. By 1992, the trustee savings banks of Waterford and others in
Cork,
Dublin,
Monaghan and
Limerick had consolidated into TSB Bank, which was acquired in 2001 by
Irish Life and Permanent and rebranded
Permanent TSB. •
United States:
mutual savings banks started with the
Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston (est. 1816), and were heavily concentrated in the
Northeastern United States. They were decimated at the start of the
savings and loan crisis in the early 1980s, and more mutual savings banks failed later in the 1980s and 1990s while other converted to joint-stock status. As of 2024, the oldest surviving mutual savings bank is
Liberty Bank, established 1825 as Middletown Savings Bank.
Federal savings banks are savings banks chartered at the federal level. •
Netherlands: the first Dutch savings bank () was established in 1817 in
Workum; 1848 saw the creation of the . In 1907, the savings banks started to operate as a national network (). In 1979-1983 the largest Dutch savings banks merged to form which in the 1990s became a founding component of
Fortis Group, itself dismantled in 2008 with the Dutch operations absorbed into
ABN AMRO. Other savings banks merged into SNS Bank (for , ), later nationalized and renamed
De Volksbank in 2017. •
France: following the
Caisse d'Épargne de Paris (est. 1818), non-profit private-sector savings banks were created in numerous French towns and cities, and started developing a national organization of their own in the 1980s and 1990s. By legislation of 1999, the
Groupe Caisse d'Épargne was converted into a
cooperative banking group, which in 2009 merged with another cooperative group,
Groupe Banque Populaire, to form
Groupe BPCE. •
Austria: following the 1819 establishment of
Erste Bank in
Vienna, Austrian savings banks have developed first as philanthropic associations and later as local government-sponsored entities. The 1980s and 1990s saw multiple rounds of reform and the departure from the network of the largest savings bank, Vienna's
Zentralsparkasse, which eventually became part of
UniCredit. As a result of these changes, the
Sparkassengruppe Österreich operates largely as a single commercial banking group (and is supervised as such under
European Banking Supervision), with
Erste Group Bank as its central entity. •
Slovenia: the
Carniolan Savings Bank was established in 1820 (originally as
Laibacher Sparkasse) and remained the only financial institution in what is now Slovenia until the 1860s. More municipal savings banks were subsequently established, including the in 1889. •
Sweden: the first Swedish savings bank was established in 1820 in
Gothenburg. During the
Sweden financial crisis 1990–1994, a number of them merged in 1992 to form a commercial banking group that has been branded
Swedbank since 2006. Dozens of other savings banks survive, such as
Westra Wermlands Sparbank in
Värmland County (est. 1856). •
Italy: starting with
Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia (est. 1822), a number of savings banks () were established in the Italian parts of the
Austrian Empire, followed by establishments in other Italian polities and after the
unification of Italy. Italian savings banks never coalesced in a national network or group. In 1990, the legislation known as led to their conversion into joint-stock companies, with
independent banking foundations as shareholders. This triggered significant consolidation in the 1990s and 2000s into larger commercial banking groups. For example, the savings banks of
Rimini (est. 1840),
La Spezia (1842),
Parma (1859), and
Piacenza (1860) have become part of
Crédit Agricole Italia; those of
Venice and
Padua (1822),
Milan (1823),
Florence (1829),
Prato (1830),
Gorizia and
Pistoia (1831),
Spoleto (1836),
Bologna (1837),
Forlì (1839),
Ascoli Piceno (1842),
Civitavecchia (1847),
Cuneo and
Viterbo (1855),
Foligno (1857),
Calabria (1861), and (1949) have become part of
Intesa Sanpaolo; those of
Pisa (1834),
Lucca (1835),
Livorno (1836), and
Alessandria (1838), have become part of
Banco BPM; those of
Ferrara (1838),
Genoa (1846), and
L'Aquila (1859) have become part of
BPER Banca; and those of
Verona (1825),
Turin (1827),
Rome (1836),
Trieste (1842),
Modena (1846),
Reggio Emilia (1852),
Sicily (1861),
Treviso (1907), and
Perugia (1908) have become part of
UniCredit. As of early 2024, a few savings banks still exist as independent entities in
Asti,
Bolzano,
Cento,
Fermo,
Fossano,
Ravenna,
Savigliano, and
Volterra. •
Norway: the
savings banks in Norway started with the establishment of that of
Christiania in 1822. Still run decentrally, they have coalesced into two national networks,
SpareBank 1 (est. 1996) and
Eika Gruppen (est. 1997). All savings banks are members of the
Norwegian Savings Banks Association. •
Finland: -Åbo Sparbank () was established in 1822 in
Turku. The number of Finnish savings banks reached more than four hundred in the mid-20th century, but has decreased since then to only 16. Of these, 15 participate in the
Savings Banks Group while (based in
Seinäjoki) is run independently. •
Czech Republic: the
Česká spořitelna () was established in 1825 under the savings bank framework of the Austrian Empire. The savings banks in
Czechoslovakia were consolidated in 1967 into a single State Savings Bank, then split in 1969 into a Czech and a Slovak components. In the post-Communist transition, Česká spořitelna was privatized and purchased in 2000 by
Erste Group. •
Spain: the
cajas de ahorros developed from 1835 legislation that emulated the French template. The
2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis triggered massive restructuring and consolidation, by which many savings banks were liquidated, purchased by commercial banks, or consolidated into four savings banks groups:
CaixaBank,
IberCaja,
Kutxabank, and
Unicaja. •
Hungary: the
First National Savings Bank of Pest established in 1839-1840, was converted in 1844 into a
joint-stock company. From then, Hungarian entities named "savings bank" were essentially indistinguishable from commercial banks. In 1949, the Communist authorities established the National Savings Bank (), later known as
OTP Bank. •
Russia: in 1842, the Imperial government established savings banks in
Saint Petersburg and
Moscow. Like all Russian banks, savings banks disappeared under
war communism in the first few years of the
Russian Revolution. They were re-established in 1922-1923 as the
State Labor Savings Banks System of the USSR. In 1991, the Russian network of the Soviet Savings Banks System was reorganized as
Sberbank. •
Slovakia: the was established in 1842 in today's
Bratislava, followed by other savings bank foundations in what is now Slovakia throughout the 1840s. Today's
Slovenská sporiteľňa, like its Czech equivalent, results from the 1969 division of the State Savings Bank of Czechoslovakia. It was also purchased by
Erste Group in 2001. •
Croatia: as in Hungary (with which Croatia was tied politically until
World War I), "savings banks" were largely undistinguishable from commercial banks until the general destruction of the Croatian banking sector following
World War II. These included the
First Croatian Savings Bank (est. 1846) and
City Savings Bank of Zagreb (est. 1913). •
Belgium: the
Caisse Générale d'Épargne et de Retraite was created in two stages in 1850 and 1865 as a national savings institution. In the 1990s it was privatized and became part of
Fortis Group, since 2008 itself part of
BNP Paribas. •
New Zealand: The first trustee savings bank was the New Plymouth Savings Bank (est. 1850), later branded
TSB. Savings banks as a legal category disappeared in 1987, being replaced with so-called registered banks. •
Luxembourg: the
Caisse d'Épargne de l'État, also known as
Spuerkeess, was established in 1856. •
Chile: the was established in 1858 for the specific benefit of government employees. •
Brazil: the () was established in 1861, and merged with other public institutions in 1967 to form
Caixa Econômica Federal. •
Japan: the was established in 1880. The first national savings banks legislation was enacted in 1893, and by 1906 there were 486 savings banks in the country. Despite their inspiration by foreign models, Japanese savings banks had a more commercial or even speculative orientation, which led to widespread financial fragility among them. In 1921-1922, a long-delayed regulatory tightening led to all savings banks closing or merging into ordinary banks between then and the late 1940s, after which savings banks ceased to exist in Japan as a separate category. Several of the last remaining savings banks merged in May 1945 to form Japan Savings Bank Inc. (), which in 1948 renamed itself and eventually became part of
Resona Holdings as the result of successive mergers and restructurings from 1991 to 2003. •
Portugal: the () was established as a nationwide entity in 1880, and merged in 1885 with
Caixa Geral de Depósitos. •
Romania: the (est. 1864) was renamed () in 1880 and in 1881 established a subsidiary named the Savings Bank (). It has remained state-owned and been branded
CEC Bank since 2008. •
San Marino: the
Cassa di Risparmio della Repubblica di San Marino was established in 1882. •
Panama: the was established in 1934 as a national public bank. •
Poland: the General Savings Bank () was established in 1950 on the basis of the former postal saving system, since then known as
PKO Bank Polski. •
Peru: the () are
microfinance institutions that have developed as municipally owned public enterprises since 1982. •
Bulgaria: the State Savings Bank ( / DSK, est. 1951) has become
DSK Bank, eventually purchased by Hungary's
OTP Bank in 2003. •
Ukraine: the State Specialized Commercial Savings Bank of Ukraine was established in 1991 from the former
Savings Bank of the USSR, and converted in 1999 into a state-owned joint-stock bank, the
State Savings Bank of Ukraine (), also known as Oschadbank. •
Albania: the
Savings Bank of Albania () was established in 1992 and purchased in 2004 by
Raiffeisen Bank International. •
Botswana: the
Botswana Savings Bank was established in 1992 as a national public development bank. •
Sudan: the , a microfinance institution, was established in 1995 in
Khartoum. •
North Macedonia: savings banks, such as (est. 1996) and (est. 1999), are licensed microfinance institutions. ==Representation==