ESBG
The European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG) is the association of savings banks and retail banks in Europe, with its headquarters in Brussels. ESBG is the European arm of the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI), and both work under the joint name WSBI-ESBG. Its 32 members from 27 countries bring together 859 savings and retail banks that serve 163 million people in Europe.
The member banks of ESBG turn local savings into loans for households, small and medium-sized enterprises and local authorities. ESBG agrees common positions among its members and presents them to the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank and the supervisors. Its policy work covers prudential rules, payments and the digital euro, anti-money laundering, sustainable finance and consumer protection.
WSBI and ESBG
WSBI, the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute, represents savings and retail banks worldwide, while ESBG speaks for the European members at EU level. The two associations work with one team in Brussels under the joint name WSBI-ESBG, and their roots go back to 1924. Across the whole network, WSBI-ESBG counts 99 members in 76 countries with around 1.7 billion customers.
WSBI-ESBG has followed the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact since 2006 and honors member banks for their work on the Sustainable Development Goals. Outside Europe, the WSBI program Scale2Save has brought savings and other financial services to more than 7 million women, young people and farmers since 2008.
Members in 27 countries
The members of ESBG are national savings bank associations and individual banks. Germany is represented by the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV), the association of the Sparkassen, and Austria by the Österreichischer Sparkassenverband. Spain sends CECA and CaixaBank, France sends Groupe BPCE and the Fédération Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne, and Swedbank is a member in Sweden and the three Baltic states. Further members include Spuerkeess in Luxembourg, ASN Bank in the Netherlands and several banks of the OTP group from Hungary to Ukraine.
Together the member banks employ 620,000 people in 37,000 branches and hold total assets of 6.35 trillion euros. ESBG member banks have lent 3.72 trillion euros to their customers, with households and SMEs as their main borrowers.
President, board and CEO
Nicolas Namias of Groupe BPCE is president of ESBG, and the presidents committee also includes five vice presidents: Gerhard Brandstätter of the Italian association ACRI, who is also treasurer, Jens Henriksson of Swedbank, Stefanie Christina Huber of the Österreichischer Sparkassenverband, Ulrich Reuter of the DSGV and Antonio Jesús Romero Mora of CECA. The board brings together one member and one alternate per country, from Austria and Belgium to Spain and Sweden. Peter Simon is chief executive officer of WSBI-ESBG and leads the joint team in Brussels.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Belgium
Digital euro and European payments
The payments committee of ESBG works on the digital euro regulation. Its priority positions for the trilogue negotiations ask for a sustainable compensation model for the banks that distribute the digital euro, for holding limits that protect deposits and lending, and for a phased start with core functions. Together with the EACB and the European Banking Federation, ESBG commissioned PwC to estimate the cost for banks, and the study of June 2025 puts the change costs for the euro area at up to 18 billion euros.
The three bank associations call themselves the European Credit Sector Associations and also support private European payment solutions. In October 2026 they welcomed the founding of the European Network for Payments, which is to connect Bancomat, Bizum, EPI with Wero, SIBS with MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay. These services count around 130 million users in 13 European countries.
AML, MiCA and banking rules
ESBG answers consultations of the EU authorities for its members and asks for proportionate rules for smaller, locally focused banks. In 2026 it responded several times to the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority AMLA, for example on customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring and the format for reporting suspicious transactions. ESBG also replied to the review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and to consultations of the European Banking Authority on simpler supervisory reporting.
Retail Banking Conference and events
The ESBG Retail Banking Conference brings members together with Members of the European Parliament and officials of the European Commission and the European Central Bank in Brussels. Panels at the 2025 edition covered retail payments and the digital euro, the Savings and Investments Union and affordable housing. ESBG also hosts Spotlight events, webinars and the award ceremony of the European Stock Market Learning initiative for school students.
Address in Brussels
The joint secretariat of WSBI and ESBG is at Rue Marie-Thérèse 11 in 1000 Brussels, Belgium, where the Retail Banking Conference and the Spotlight events also take place. The team there works in departments such as regulatory affairs and payments, digital finance and innovation, which follow the EU files for the members.
ESBG and Finance Loop
Finance Loop members follow many of the files that ESBG takes to Brussels, from the digital euro and Wero to the new AMLA rules and the MiCA review. Finance Loop discusses these questions in its Payments & Digital Money track, at events in Frankfurt and other European cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.