The Frankfurter Volksbank has, statistically speaking, achieved a merger approximately every 1.5 years since 1990. Merger number 22 with the Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg is underway. After successfully completing merger number 21 last year with the Rüsselsheimer Volksbank, the Frankfurt Volksbank added the suffix "Rhein/Main" to its name to emphasize that it operates in almost the entire Frankfurt/Rhein-Main metropolitan region.

Germany's second-largest cooperative primary institute, following the merger, will have a total balance of 19.2 billion euros by the end of the year. Other financial heavyweights in the Rhein-Main area include the recently merged Volksbank Darmstadt Mainz, which has a balance of over 14 billion euros and is the third-largest Volksbank in the country, the Volksbank Mittelhessen located in Gießen with nearly 11 billion euros, and the Wiesbadener Volksbank with 8 billion euros. Mergers have been observed in all sectors of the banking industry for decades. Just 20 years ago, there were nearly 2,500 banks and savings banks in Germany, whereas now there are more than 1,000 less. In the past year alone, 61 institutions disappeared, according to the Bundesbank.

The merger trend in the banking sector is inevitable if banks want to remain competitive. Small, unspecialized institutions, especially in the cooperative and savings bank sectors, find it increasingly challenging to assert themselves, given the ever-increasing regulatory burden and the growing difficulty in finding qualified junior staff.

Large institutions in both banking sectors must be careful not to lose or alienate their core brand and customer base in ever-expanding business areas. For example, Germany's largest savings bank, the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Potsdam, serves a business area of 11,000 square kilometers, equivalent to half the size of the state of Hesse. It's no wonder that mega-mergers and large-scale mergers in the savings bank sector, which involve the consolidation of non-contiguous business areas, have raised concerns. The legitimate worry is that these mega-entities could squeeze out neighboring regions, making economic regions no longer compatible with municipal territory structures and leading to a loss of customer proximity.