German Pfandbrief Act

Pfandbriefe are issued on the basis of the German Pfandbrief Act (Pfandbriefgesetz, PfandBG). The Act’s aim and purpose is to guarantee the high security of Pfandbriefe.

The Pfandbrief’s history dates back more than 200 years, when it was established in Prussia by edict of Frederick the Great in 1769. In January 1900, the Mortgage Bank Act (Hypothekenbankgesetz) entered into force, creating for the first time a uniform legal basis for issuing Pfandbriefe in Germany. Some 105 years later, the old Mortgage Bank Act and the legislative texts on Public and Ship Pfandbriefe were consolidated and then replaced by the new Pfandbrief Act in 2005. Measures were inserted to ensure quality, laying the cornerstone for the seamless continuation of the German Pfandbrief’s success story.

Fundamental documents and specialised literature

The high level of security offered by the Pfandbrief stems from the provisions of the PfandBG and associated secondary legislation. We have put together a compilation – by no means exhaustive – of the relevant fundamental documents, such as legislative texts and regulations (including those concerning the Mortgage Bank Act), under the menu item PfandBG on our german website.

We have done the same with specialised literature and essays, which you can search for by keyword and publication date range under Publications. This also includes our extensive vdp publication series, which brings together the knowledge and experience of a variety of Pfandbrief experts, who offer in-depth examinations of such aspects as the mortgage lending value, funding issues, and security rights over real property inside and outside Europe.