Hamburg: a key financial centre

Hamburg is one of Germany's oldest and largest financial centres. The commercial success achieved by numerous individuals and by companies in many sectors of industry gives Hamburg the economic strength that makes it northern Germany's pre-eminent financial centre. Hamburg's roots as a financial hub go back several centuries:

• In 1558, Germany's first stock exchange was founded in Hamburg. Berenberg Bank, the country's oldest privately-owned financial institution, was founded here in 1590. The Ersparungs-Casse, Hamburg's first savings bank, opened in 1778, while the city's insurance industry traces its roots back as far as the fifteenth century. In addition to fire and health insurance guilds dating back to the Middle Ages, Hamburg's importance as a trading centre and port has long made it a home to marine and credit insurers. The Hamburger Feuerkasse has been insuring the city's buildings against fire damage since 1676, making it the world's oldest continuously operating insurance company.

Hamburg's economy continues to rank among Europe's strongest. The city boasts Germany's highest per-capita income and the greatest number of millionaires in relation to population. Without losing touch with its illustrious tradition, Hamburg has become more than a major port and trading city. It has developed into a modern and innovative service centre with an important and uniquely diverse financial hub:

• The Hamburg Exchange (Hamburger Börse) comprises five separate exchanges. The General Exchange (Allgemeine Börse) primarily serves the real-estate sector and is the central meeting place for the city's estate agents and realtors. The Hamburg Stock Exchange (Wertpapierbörse Hamburg), which is operated by its parent company, BÖAG Börsen AG, offers trading in conventional securities. It is also moving into new business areas with its Start-Up Market, High-Risk Market, and Follow-Up Market. The Hamburg Insurance Exchange (Hamburger Versicherungsbörse) reflects the city's importance as a major insurance centre while the Hamburg Grain Exchange (Hamburger Getreidebörse) is the Hamburger Börse's only active commodity exchange. The Hamburg Coffee Exchange (Hamburger Kaffeebörse), located in the Speicherstadt area of Hamburg's free port zone, is currently working on a number of innovative projects, including an Internet-based coffee-trading platform.
• Hamburg's banking sector currently employs some 25,000 people, not to mention the large workforce employed by leasing companies, guarantee banks, investment companies, and financial consultancies. Forty-nine German banks have branches in Hamburg, and 28 foreign banks have representative offices here, putting Hamburg in second place behind Frankfurt and ahead of both Berlin and Munich. Hamburg is home to Hamburger Sparkasse, Europe's second-largest savings bank. The diversity and quality of the city's banking services make it a very attractive place to do business. With its many universal, private, investment, and specialist banks, Hamburg offers customers the full range of financial services. And with one bank branch per 2,330 inhabitants, Hamburg compares well with Munich (1,650) and Frankfurt (2,000) and is far ahead of Berlin (4,350) in terms of branch density. Despite the trend towards globalisation and e-business, Hamburg's financial institutions will continue to offer the high-quality, personalised services their customers expect. Hamburg's financial institutions have an intimate knowledge of the region's economy and will continue to tailor their services to the needs of the local business community. The range of specialist shipping and media financing products are an excellent example of this.
• With 24,530 employed persons liable to make payments into Germany's social insurance system, Hamburg is Germany's third-largest insurance centre behind Munich and Cologne. More impressively, Hamburg is the country's most diverse insurance centre, with a large variety of insurance products and companies. Hamburg's insurance sector comprises primarily small and medium-sized insurance companies, brokers, and agents. It is an attractive place for insurance providers and their customers to do business because it has an excellent insurance infrastructure in the form of the Hamburg Insurance Exchange, the Association of Hamburg Insurers, and other insurance-related associations and societies.
• Hamburg is the entrepreneurial heart of Germany. With 13.3 new businesses for every 10,000 inhabitants, Hamburg has by far the highest new-business start-up ratio of all of Germany's federal states and is one of the leading locations for business angels and venture capital in Germany. Our directory of venture capital firms in Hamburg lists well over 20 companies that provide venture capital and consulting services for business expansion.

Thanks to its economic strength and the steadily-increasing purchasing power of its population, Hamburg can be confident that it will continue to be a thriving global financial marketplace and play a pivotal role in the banking, trading-exchange, insurance, and venture-capital sectors of a united Europe.