Within the system for regulating competition, banks assume a special legal position. Since the beginning of the1930's, the German legislator has assumed that the competition among banks exhibits particularities that are branch-specific and thus the freedom of competition of banks must also be regulated branch-specifically. In the course of the past forty years, the legislator has gradually dismantled freedom-restricting special provisions and widened freedom-maintaining provisions. As a result, the freedom of competition of banks is steadily approaching the freedom of competition of other businesses again.