There are several European banks that operate under the name "Volksbank". There are also 1,099 independent local Volksbanken in Germany. They are completely separate from the Austrian Association of Volksbanks. Volksbanken are also known as VB or as VR.
Germany - Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken
The "Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken" is a consortium of 1,099 independent credit unions, which represents the banks as Germany's largest banking group in several marketing affairs and as service partner Genossenschaftliche Finanzgruppe Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken - Cooperative Financial Group. The Genossenschaftliche Finanzgruppe is the only banking group which survived the financial crisis of 2007-08 without any state intervention. Former subsidiaries of Volksbank, have been sold to Sberbank of Russia.
On 13 January 2013 robbers stole goods from 100 private safe deposit boxes located in Steglitz, Berlin. In the official statement the police said that bank security officer noticed smoke coming from the deposit room on Monday morning. Next they found broken deposit boxes and a 30 m tunnel, the digging of which probably took a couple of weeks or even months. The tunnel was reportedly so well constructed that it had ceiling supports and was about 3 feet wide. It connected the bank deposit and a nearby underground parking lot. Probably nobody noticed anything, because the parking lot was shielded by roulettes, and people thought that this part was under repair. There are some similarities between this robbery and the Baker Street robbery in London.
Austria - Association of Volksbanks
In Austria there are 35 local Volksbanks, each of them organized as a cooperative or a corporation. By 2017 they will merge to 8 regional banks and 2 specialized banks. They build an integrated system of banks connected through a contract of collaboration. The central institution is VOLKSBANK WIEN AG, the biggest regional bank of the association. The central service functions were transferred from Österreichische Volksbanken AG to VOLKSBANK WIEN AG in July 2015. ÖVAG itself surrendered its banking license. The "remainder of ÖVAG" continues to operate as a wind-down entity under the name of immigon portfolioabbau ag. Immigon is responsible for ensuring the orderly, active and value-preserving wind-down of its assets.
