DZ Bank AG is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 700 cooperative banks and their around 7,200 branch offices.[3] Within that Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, which is one of Germany's largest private sector financial service organizations and manages assets of around 1.175 trillion euros,[3] DZ Bank functions both as a central institution and as a corporate and investment bank.
DZ Bank is an acronym for Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank (literally "German Central Cooperative Bank").
As a holding, the DZ Bank Group defines itself primarily as a service provider for local cooperative banks and their 30 million or so clients. The DZ Bank Group includes: Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, a building society; DZ HYP, a provider of commercial real estate finance; DZ Privatbank Gruppe; R+V Versicherung, an insurance company; TeamBank, a provider of consumer finance; Union Investment Group, an asset management company; VR Smart Finanz; and various other specialized institutions.