Dezentrale versus zentrale Bankensysteme?
Decentralized versus centralized banking systems? Geographic market orientation and the location of decision-making as characteristics for a classification of banking systems. In the light of global financial integration many authors expect a homogenization of financial systems and thus the well-established classification in bank and capital market-based systems is questioned. We conceptualised an alternative classification in decentralized and centralized banking and apply this classification to the German banking system. Banking groups differ clearly in terms of their spatial distribution of employees, which we use as an approximate indicator for geographic market orientation. It was also observed that decentralized banks increased their share in the credit market at the expense of centralized banks and granted the majority of corporate loans. Compared internationally the German banking system is presumably very decentralized, however more research is needed to assess the state and influence of banking systems’ spatial organisation on a cross country base.