Sparkasse
“Can Germany's largest public-law banking network modernize its digital and embedded finance offering fast enough to retain SME and retail customers against neobanks and Big Tech payment entrants?”
Sparkasse is Germany's largest banking group by retail customer count, organized as a network of ~370 legally independent public-law savings banks under the umbrella of the DSGV (Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband). Rather than a single pivot, the group has evolved from purely branch-based savings banking toward full digital banking, mobile apps, and API-driven open banking under PSD2. On the embedded finance side, individual Sparkassen increasingly offer white-label or partner-embedded products (loans, cards, insurance, payroll processing via DSRZ) on top of their core deposit and payment rails. The group does not rely on third-party BaaS providers — it IS the bank and operates its own licensed entities.