The merger between Deutsche Postbank AG and DSL Bank AG has now been perfected. With the entry into the register of companies, the merger has now finally become legally valid. With around DM 260 billion (Euro 132.9 billion), the institute is now ranked among the top German banks. For 1999, the two financial institutions declared a combined profit after provisions for contingencies totalling DM 365 million (Euro 186.6 million). Postbank will have in excess of 12,000 employees. As of today, Stefan Jütte and Wolfgang Schneider, to date both Members of the DSL Bank Board of Directors, will join the Postbank Board of Directors. The two banks are likely to also merge their organisational structures on July 1.

With the merger, Postbank will considerably increase its competitiveness, as its current strength in the area of savings, totalling DM 104 billion (Euro 53.2 billion), will in future be further strengthened by DSL Bank’s credit business of in excess of DM 94 billion (Euro 48 billion). In terms of strategy, the two banks also supplement each other in an ideal manner: DSL Bank has extensive know-how in the area of private and commercial property finance as well as underwriting. As a retail bank, Postbank will integrate its ten million customers, 400,000 of whom are business clients into the new bank. Postbank is one of the market leaders in online and telephone banking, and also Germany’s Number One savings bank. With the 14,000 Deutsche Post branches, it has the densest branch network of any bank in Germany. DSL Bank now complements multi-channel sales with its brokerage operations.

In order to better utilise the respective strengths, “DSL Bank” will maintain its brand name in the private property finance sector. In future, it will be available with all its financial services to its approx. 1,500 cooperation partners as “DSL Bank – A Division of Deutsche Postbank AG”.

With the merger, Postbank will also be able to expand its range of services, for example in the area of e-Commerce, but also in commercial real estate financing or leasing refinancing. Together with Deutsche Post, the bank will be active in a completely new sector, logistics financing. For this reason, one of the strategic aims is to offer complete solutions within the context of the Deutsche Post World Net group.

To date, the owners of DSL Bank, a public institution, were the Federal Republic of Germany and two Federal Lander. In 1989, DSL Holding AG acquired an atypical silent share in DSL Bank. Postbank announced on June 30, 1999 that it intended to acquire all government-owned shares in DSL Bank. At the same time, Postbank made an offer to DSL Holding AG shareholders to buy their shares. With the de-mutualisation, Postbank assumed all shares in DSL Bank at the end of 1999/beginning of 2000. At the same time, Postbank acquired in excess of 80 percent of the DSL Holding AG shares.