In addition to being big, slow, and bureaucratic, don't forget that they're also expensive, are bad at some very basic things like online banking, and don't hav

In addition to being big, slow, and bureaucratic, don't forget that they're also expensive, are bad at some very basic things like online banking, and don't have a wide array of products. (They're not so great at stock portfolios, for example). Having lived in Germany, Austria, and the UK, I was shocked, upon arrival here, how thin the network of bank banches and ATM machines is, while at the same time cash plays a much bigger role than in other top-tier industrialized nations, and point-of-sales cashless payment systems seem like they are from the previous century. I don't know the extent of the stratistical facts around this anecdotal evidence, but I've often heard visitors from other top-tier industrialized nations comment in the same way (like visitors from the Netherlands, Scandinavia, etc.) Sparkasse (the city-run public banks) are pretty much the only bank with a branch network that's dense enough that you can live in a suburb, exurb, or rural town and have a bank branch somewhere near where you live. The other banks have branches and ATM machines only in major population centers. All non-Sparkasse banks, taken together, have less than half the ATM machines that Sparkasse has, and Sparkasse exploits that fact by charging card-holders from other banks for cash withdrawals. So, Sparkasse has a monopoly-like situation on the supply of cash, and considering how cash plays a way more important role than it does in the U.S. or other parts of Europe where cashless payment systems are much more prevalent, this is a very bad situation. So, the net effect, in my opinion, is that, in Germany, taxpayer money is used to sustain a banking monopoly that makes it hard for private business to compete and creates a situation where the banking industry can sustain a price level that's higher than what exists in nations with a free market, to the detriment of the consumer/citizen. -- This really shouldn't be happening, in my opinion, in a country that sees itself as a free market economy and is often described as the economic powerhouse of Europe.