As of: March 25, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Boris Forstner
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Split
Three again: The board team (from left) Michael Lautenbacher, Markus Lanz and Michael Müller.
© Rudder
After years of flat interest rates and the sudden increase in 2022, last year was rather quiet for Sparkasse Oberland.
Markus Lanz was able to present decent figures in his first balance sheet as CEO - and a significantly increased profit.
District
- After the merger with Kreissparkasse Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which briefly consisted of five members, Sparkasse Oberland has returned to the planned size of three board members following the departure of Thomas Orbig and Peter Lingg.
Lanz was able to report decent numbers, although there were not too big increases.
The balance sheet total remained almost identical at 4.83 billion euros compared to 2022 (4.82 billion), as did the deposits, which amount to 3.62 billion euros.
Only the annual profit rose significantly from 1.22 to 3.5 million euros, which was due to the fact that banks can make money again in the traditional interest business.
“The fixation on money market interest rates has fallen short”
According to board member Michael Lautenbacher, the fact that interest in money market business cannot be passed on to customers immediately is due to the fact that customers' funds are usually tied up, including in loans, and interest rates can therefore only be increased slowly.
And what about the money that is deposited with the European Central Bank and earns four percent interest?
“Last year, unnoticed by many, the ECB decided to no longer pay any interest on the mandatory deposit of 35 million euros,” said Lautenbacher.
In addition, they want to work with the money and not leave it lying around with the ECB.
“The fixation on the money market interest rate has fallen short,” says Lanz, who doesn’t play a major role at Sparkasse Oberland – unlike at direct banks.
Customers are investing significantly more in securities
What is noticeable: many customers have turned to the capital market.
The realization is slowly becoming apparent that the meager interest on the current account has no chance against inflation.
The securities volume managed increased significantly from 1.11 to 1.34 billion euros.
Although construction activity has fallen significantly due to high interest rates and increased costs, the savings bank was able to slightly increase its lending business last year from 3.61 to 3.72 billion euros - "that puts us well above the savings bank association's figures," says board member Michael Müller.
The number is divided into 1.5 billion for private customers, 2.1 billion for business customers, and the rest for municipalities.
Despite high interest rates and construction costs, 83 properties were still sold
900 construction financings were realized, 83 properties were sold and 29 were rented.
“The properties sold increased by 17 percent; in Bavaria the decline was an average of 30 percent,” says Müller proudly.
In addition, there were 1,700 building savings contracts concluded, where demand was very high.
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The area of donations and sponsorship is very important to the savings bank, where 276,000 euros were spent in 2023 - in the areas of sports (94,000 euros), culture (62,000), social affairs (61,000), environment (45,000) and education (14 000).
And those responsible have made sustainability their priority.
For the first time there was a sustainability award, a photovoltaic system was built in Peiting and the heating in Murnau was converted to wood chip district heating.
This year, nine more PV systems are planned on savings bank buildings, said Lanz.
The company is proud of the regional climate savings bond, which was used to invest in local solar parks and which sold out in no time.
Number of employees decreased slightly
The proportion of women in the company is 64 percent, and of the 655 employees (including 40 trainees), 275 work part-time.
Overall, the number of employees fell by 22 compared to the previous year - a result of the merger, which is why some positions that were leaving were no longer filled.
In addition to the increasing share of online banking (now 74 percent of customers), the telephone exchanges in Peißenberg and Garmisch-Partenkirchen are also enjoying increasing popularity.
There are now an average of 1,000 calls per day, “we have also had 5,000 when there was national news that kept customers busy,” says Lautenbacher.
You are then at the limit of capacity, even if the telephone centers have been increased to 50 employees and a colleague there has started her special and new training as a “dialogue marketing clerk” for the first time.