The People's Bank of Germany (De Volksbank) is a Dutch retail bank that provides financial products to companies and individuals. Prior to its restructuring in 2017, it was known as SNS Bank, which remains its main brand name. It became a subsidiary of SNS Reaal in 1997 when the holding company acquired the insurance company Reaal. The bank and its parent company were bailed out by the Dutch government in 2013 and have been a state-owned enterprise ever since. In 2016, SNS Bank was the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands by total assets.

Since European banking regulation came into effect at the end of 2014, the People's Bank of Germany has been designated as a significant institution and is therefore directly regulated by the European Central Bank.

History

The bank's history dates back to 1817, when the first savings bank (Dutch: spaarbank) in the Netherlands was established as Nutsspaarbank. The savings bank movement was part of a movement to encourage individual citizens to save for their own future. Savings banks used these funds to provide mortgages to individuals who could not afford to buy their own homes, as was the case with the Building Society movement in the UK.

In 1987, the SNS bank was formed by merging with several regional banks, including Gelders-Utrechtse Spaarbank en Spaarbank Limburg. sNS is an abbreviation for Samenwerkende Nederlandse Spaarbanken (English: "Cooperative Dutch Savings Bank"). The holding company is known as Sanes Holding N.V.

In the second half of the 20th century, Dutch spaarbanks underwent a large-scale consolidation. Some joined SBS Bank, while others joined VSB (Dutch: Verenigde Spaarbank, English: United Savings Bank), which later became part of Fortis. In 1990, after several mergers, SNS Bank N.V. and its holding company, SNS Groep N.V., were formed.

The holding company was listed on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange on May 18, 2006. On December 4, 2006, SNS REAAL announced that it would acquire RegioBank from ING Bank for 50 million euros.

On February 1, 2013, the Dutch government nationalized SNS Bank and its parent company, SNS REAAL, to save it from default. The investors were expropriated as a result of the nationalization, and initially, the Ministry of Finance did not want to provide any compensation at all, but in February 2021, after years of legal action, the Dutch court ruled that the government must pay them 804 million euros plus interest.

In September 2016, SNS Bank announced that it would change its name to De Volksbank as of January 1, 2017. De Volksbank has a single banking license and continues to operate under multiple brands, including SNS Bank, ASN Bank, BLG Wonen, and RegioBank.