Ask your average resident of Berlin or Frankfurt if they bank with Haspa and they will probably greet your question with a puzzled “Who?” Yet pose the same question in Hamburg and one in two will say “Yes”.

Welcome to Germany, where such regionally dominant savings banks as Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) have long made it tough for nationwide private-sector operators, such as Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and Dresdner, to make decent returns in retail banking.