Targobank

The Targobank AG & Co. KGaA (proper spelling: TARGOBANK ) is a company operating in Germany in the retail business bank headquartered in Dusseldorf. Since 2008 she is part of the French Crédit Mutuel Bank Group. They previously belonged to the American Citigroup and still operated until 2010 as Citibank Private AG & Co. KGaA. The Targobank has around three million customers and employs about 6,500 people in 343 sales offices.

History

In 1926 was the customer's credit bank ( KKB ) in East Prussia, Königsberg, the first bank in Germany, forgave their loans to private consumers. In the same year the City Bank of New York opened an office in Berlin. 1935 moved the KKB their headquarters to Dusseldorf.

The KKB customer credit bank was taken over in 1973 by the First National City Bank and renamed in 1991 in Citibank Private Clients AG. In 2003 she was converted & Co. KGaA in Citibank Private Clients AG. The legal form of a partnership limited by shares ( KGaA), the Institute today.

Acquisition by Crédit Mutuel and name change to Targobank

In July 2008 it was announced that the French cooperative bank Crédit Mutuel buys the retail business of the then crisis-ridden Citibank in Germany. The price was 4.9 billion euros, plus the profits earned in fiscal year 2008 to the date of the acquisition. In December 2008, Citibank Germany group so that part of the French bank Crédit Mutuel group was. The brand " Citi ", " Citibank " and " Citibank with Arc Design" were initially led by Crédit Mutuel under license from Citigroup Inc..

Which was taken over by the French Crédit Mutuel - - ​​since February 22, 2010 for the first time only on its new name Targobank on the market in Germany, the former U.S. subsidiary of Citibank occurs. At the word Targo is not about an acronym, but is a pure art word which was developed by the copywriter Manfred Gotta for the company and should gain acceptance worldwide. The similarity to the Polish word for market ( pln targ ) is purely coincidental.

Structure of today's Targobank

• Corporate headquarters are located in Dusseldorf
• Service center in Duisburg
• In over 200 cities distributed: 343 branches

Structure of the former Citibank

In Germany, the Citibank was represented among others by the following companies:

• Citibank Private AG & Co. KGaA, headquartered in Dusseldorf, which was created by change of name from the Citibank Private Clients AG 2003. Since 30 September 1991, the German Citicorp subsidiary operates under the name Citibank, having previously taken on the customer's credit bank ( KKB ) or their customer base.
• Citicorp Service Ltd., headquartered in Duisburg. Citicorp Service Ltd. was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of Citibank Private Clients AG.
• Citicorp Germany GmbH in Dusseldorf as a management holding company of other companies in Germany.
• 2001 followed by the establishment of Citifinanzberatung GmbH, headquartered in Dusseldorf, in which the mobile client advisors are employed. This subsidiary was the 2006 fastest growing. The number of employees of " MSF " ( " Mobile Sales Force " as the field workers can be called at Citibank ) end of 2008 was approximately 230

Sports sponsorship

Since 1 July 2007, the former Citibank sponsor of the football club Werder Bremen. For five years it was the main and shirt sponsor, in this time was also the break at Citibank, which meant that players transitional instead of the company name the advertising slogan "So Bank is today," wore on his chest, before start of season one 2010 / 2011 moved on to the logo Targobank. From the 2012/13 season, the company becomes the new official partner of the DFB Cup, at the same time gave you the shirt sponsorship with Werder Bremen from without but the collaboration to end in total. The contract with the DFB has a term of four years. The bank will receive an attractive package of rights for all 63 matches of the competition, such as a large TV presence through banner advertising.

Cooperations

As of 1995, Citibank cooperated with Deutsche Bahn. So future BahnCards should be, inter alia, issued with a credit card function. The processing of customer data and photos in the U.S. led to a review by German data protection as the legal basis for this was not clear. The cooperation was accompanied by fierce criticism in the media ( see Bahn Card) and completed by Deutsche Bahn in March 1999.

Since October 2011, there is a cooperation with the television station ProSieben. The corresponding map is equipped in addition to the payment function with added value: it offers next sweepstakes and discounts at partner the opportunity to purchase tickets for ProSieben shows and events even before the official launch.

In August 2012, the Targobank presented a solution for mobile payment, in which a bank's side issued NFC chip is mounted on the back of a mobile phone. The offer is provided in cooperation with MasterCard and E -Plus BASE brand.

Criticism

The image of the former Citibank in the German press was ambivalent. Although Citibank was awarded as " customer-centric bank in Germany 2006" ( awarded by the University of St. Gallen, the Handelsblatt and Steria Mummert Consulting), at the same time it has been regularly criticized for their lending practices (like the Consumer Protection Plus or Minus). Due to their bad reputation Citibank launched in 2004 a new international campaign Our Shared Responsibilities.

Citibank Germany received in the wake of the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 again negative headlines. Numerous media reports, certificates were especially hard hit by Lehman Brothers in Citibank branches as a safe fixed-term alternative to private customers - have been sold, who were consequently faced with the loss of their investment - including especially many retirees. In Germany alone, it is said to have traded at about 50,000 victims, of which a large part of Citibank customers were. The Citibank is accused according to media reports of financial experts to have a massive boost as the leading distributor of Lehman Brothers the sale of Lehman certificates in Germany, to supply the investment bank with fresh capital.

On 28 May 2009, Citibank announced the successful completion of long discussions with the Consumer NRW, with the agreement had been reached on an ex gratia payment with an amount of € 27 million. This approach was initially well received by the media, but rejected by the community of interest of the Lehman injured as insufficient and mainly beneficial to the bank. The scope of the goodwill offer corresponds to just over five percent of the estimated total damage of 475 million euros, and even according to their own assessment of Citibank two-thirds of the injured customers would go empty. The compensation model provides a multi-level repayment of 30 to 80 percent for those cases before where it comes to life-threatening sums, and includes extensive exclusion criteria. The precise criteria have been published on the side of the consumer center NRW.

In autumn 2009, the Consumer Association ( VZ ) finished on a sample of 15 banks in that they do not further submitted their strong lower refinancing costs to customers. When "Extra - account" Citibank of unregistered interest rate was 16.99 percent. 2010 urged the VZ three banks from because of this practice. A bank signed a cease and desist; against the other two - Targobank and Sparda-Bank Münster - draws the VZ in court.