Agencies that track the health of German banks

Is there a governmental or other agency that keeps track of the reserves, loan losses, etc. of German Banks? Do they have a website?

Also, are bank deposits insured against losses (like the FDIC/NCUA in the US)?

In Eurpoe, as in the USA, banks have to enter certain protection schemes with the central banks.
Your deposited money in an account is no worries.

Most German banks are in the comprehensive German mutual guarantee fund (Einlagensicherungsfonds). Those that are in this fund guarantee for each customer up to several millions of euro. They have a web site, where you can ask them to send you by e-mail the individual guarantee limit of a specific bank:
http://www.bankenverband.de/html/verband/e...?channel=101832
1. choose the bank you are interested in
2. fill in your details, they say they want your real details, but as long as you put in your correct e-mail address and some made-up name&postal address details, it still works.
3. They will send you within a few hours an e-mail to the e-mail address you gave which states that bank's guarantee limit in euro.
Example of that e-mail for e.g. Parex banka:
Bank Sicherungsgrenze EURO
------------------------------------------------------------
Parex banka Aktiengesellschaft 1.500.000
lettischen Rechts, ZN Berlin, Berlin

So the Parex bank in Berlin has a guarantee limit of only 1,5 million euro, most other German banks have a limit in the range of tens of millions of euro.

There are also some banks (e.g. Credit Europe Bank, AK-Bank) operating in Germany that are in the Dutch guarantee fund, which guarantees 100% up to 20,000€ per customer per bank, and 90% of the next 20,000€. The web site with their names is: http://www.nvb.nl/index.php?p=10803

If you don't find a bank operating in Germany in either of these 2 funds things get a bit hairy. I think there is a law that all banks in the European Union have to be at least in a basic guarantee fund, which guarantees 90% of deposits up to 20,000 euro, but I wouldn't rely on it and would not give my money to any bank not in the comprehensive German or Dutch guarantee funds.

The web sites above are official ones, this one is unofficial: http://www.vergleich.de/informationen/geld...andsbanken.html
and gives an overview of the guarantee limits for the different countries in the European Union. Just because a bank operates in Germany doesn't mean it is not officially part of a foreign guarantee fund. For example the Advanzia Bank is part of the Luxembourg guarantee fund.

In Germany, most of the protection comes from banks' membership in deposit protection systems (Einlagensicherungsfonds).
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einlagensicherungsfonds
Most (almost all? all?) banks participate in such insurance schemes.

The limits tend to be really, really high (in the millions) per depositor. Most of us mere mortals are not in any danger of running out of protection.
For example, the depositors at the recently-failed Weserbank were insured up to 1,832,000€ each.
http://www.bankenverband.de/channel/101832...2404/index.html

The legally mandated protection would apply for deposits at institutions not in such a system. That protection is limited to 90% of 20,000€.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einlagensicherung

Thank you for the speed and the content of the replies...

While I don't want to spread any feelings on insecurity here (because banks being a member of the Einlagensicherungsfonds are really very safe to bring your money to), I believe it is worth mentioning that this system could still collapse if more than one big bank suddenly would default on its clients. Because the system works in such a way that all the other banks (with the excemption of the Sparkassen who have their own system of mutal support amongst themselves) would bail out the clients of a defaulting memberbank according to the limits mentioned above.
Now, as long as it is just one of the smaller banks, this is peanuts and will allways be done in order to keep the market stable and to prevent panic among the bank clients in general. But if there should be a major crisis/melt-down where several large players are suddenly unable to meet their clients cash-demands, than it could simply be that the Einlagensicherungsfonds does not work because the others have neither the monetary strength to help out nor the inclination to board a sinking vessel. would be just like re-arranging chairs on the Titanic...
But if we ever get to such a large scale financial meltdown, this is probably one of the minor problems amonst violent unrest of the population, food riots and what not.

Gee, looking at my own lines above and my usually totally optimistic attitude to life I start to wonder if one of the single malts I had last night after the f...ed-up game of the German soccer team against Croatia was bad after all: to turn me into such a doom-spreading person...

Cheerio

This surely qualifies for "post of the year".