The story
Deutsche Kreditbank was founded on 19 March 1990 as the first private bank in East Germany, and was set up as a stock corporation. One of the founders was Edgar Most, the last vice president of the Staatsbank (State Bank of the GDR). The share capital was held by the Staatsbank of the GDR, the Verband deutscher Konsumgenossenschaften, the Interhotels, the nationally owned Centrum Warenhaus, and VEB Synthesewerk Schwarzheide. On 1 April 1990, the bank began operations in the GDR with an opening balance of 286.5 billion East German marks. From the onset, Deutsche Kreditbank covered a broad spectrum of services, from business to retail customers. In its closing balance on 30 June 1990, the bank's own funds amounted to 11 billion East German marks.
On 21 June 1990 the debits of the Staatsbank were endorsed on DKB, and DKB's shares that were owned by the Staatsbank were transferred to the Treuhandanstalt. In the following years, the Treuhandanstalt bought the remaining shares from the founding shareholders until the beginning of 1993, when it became the sole owner of the DKB.
The majority of the deposit-taking business (especially corporate and retail banking), as well as a number of branch buildings and locations, were taken over by Dresdner Bank and by Deutsche Bank in the course of the currency union, and ran until 1993 under Dresdner Bank Kreditbank AG and Deutsche Bank Kreditbank AG until 1994. At the end of June 1990 DKB contracted the two joint ventures to administer its legacy loans, with Deutsche Bank Kreditbank AG managing about 89 billion Deutsche Marks and Dresdner Bank Kreditbank AG about 36 billion. According to the report of the Bundesrechnungshof (Federal Audit Office), the buyers received access to the branches, the customer base, and buildings of the GDR banks for preferential prices. In December 1990 Deutsche Bank bought DKB's stake in Deutsche Bank Kreditbank AG for 310 million Deutsche Marks, and 112 branches passed to Deutsche Bank. A subsidiary of Dresdner Bank paid 87.3 million Deutsche marks for 41 properties, including buildings that were formerly owned by DKB. A subsidiary of Deutsche Bank bought 74 properties for 164.4 million Deutsche marks. The auditors of the Bundesrechnungshof considered these "unreasonable low purchase prices".
When the Treuhandanstalt was closed on 31 December 1994, DKB was briefly owned by the Federal Ministry of Finance until the bank was sold to Bayerische Landesbank on 31 January 1995.
DKB is a member of the Association of German Public Banks, Association of German Pfandbrief Banks, Bankenfachverband e.V. and Allied European Financial Market Association (AEFMA).
From Wikipedia’s article on Deutsche Kreditbank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5