The fragmentation of Germany's banking sector remains its dominant characteristic: the $10,360bn in assets recorded in this year's Top 1000 for the country are held across 82 separate banks. This is in striking contrast to the UK, where $11,267bn assets are held by 15 banks, or France, with $8745bn among just nine banks.
This year's Top 1000 reinforces the long-asked questions about whether the German banking model serves the country well, as the German banks listed made an aggregate loss of nearly $35bn. The average return on assets (ROA) was only 0.14%, and the return on Tier 1 capital was a loss of 1.1%. Among the major European economies, only the UK banking sector lost more money ($51bn), and this was on a larger base of assets and capital (aggregate capital of $335bn to Germany's $241bn). Only Belgium suffered a worse ROA and return on equity.
