For Frankfurter Volksbank, this is the 22nd merger since 1990. However, the merger with Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg is a very special one.
Germany's Volksbanks have a new number one: The merger of Frankfurter Volksbank and Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg will create Germany's largest Volksbank in terms of total assets of 18.9 billion euros (as of December 31, 2023).
On Wednesday, the merger plan announced in October cleared the last hurdle: the owners of the Aschaffenburg institute said they voted by a large majority (around 97 percent) at the general meeting for the merger of the two cooperative institutes. The technical merger is reportedly planned for November 2024.
For the Frankfurter Volksbank, which has a balance sheet total of around 15.4 billion euros and around 1,500 employees, this is the 22nd merger since 1990. The Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg is significantly smaller: the institute recently recorded a balance sheet total of around 3.5 billion euros and had just under 460 employees. The Frankfurter Volksbank was previously number two in terms of balance sheet total after the Berliner Volksbank.
The merger agreement includes, among other things, an employment guarantee for all employees of Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg for the next five years and the retention of the existing branch network under the previous brand. With the merger, all four members of the board of directors of Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg will join the board of directors of Frankfurter Volksbank Rhein/Main in the third quarter of 2024.
Both cooperative banks offer their approximately 800,000 customers 115 branches and 93 self-service locations. As of December 31, 2023, the institutions had a combined customer volume of more than 39.9 billion euros. They have almost 2,000 employees and more than 300,000 members.
