Bank für Sozialwirtschaft

The Bank für Sozialwirtschaft AG (BFS) is a specialized commercial bank for companies, institutions and organizations from the areas of health, social services (support for the elderly and disabled people, child and youth services) and education which is located in Cologne and Berlin.

Bank für Sozialwirtschaft AG
IndustrySpecialized commercial bank for companies, institutions and organizations from the areas of health, social services and education
Founded1923[1]
HeadquartersCologne and Berlin, Germany[2]
Total assets8.652,5 Mio. Euro (2017)[3]
Number of employees
464 (2017)[3]
Websitewww.sozialbank.de

Ownership

The bank was founded in March 1923[2] at the urging of the Reichsarbeitsministeriums (federal ministry of labor) as financial institute of the Freie Wohlfahrtspflege (free social welfare services) and operated in the beginning under the name Hilfskasse gemeinnütziger Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen Deutschlands G.m.b.H..[1][2] In 1929 it became the Berufsgenossenschaft für Gesundheitsdienst und Wohlfahrtspflege. Still today shareholders of the bank are umbrella organizations of the free social welfare and its foundations.

Stockholders are the Deutscher Caritasverband and the foundation Kronenkreuz (Diakonisches Werk) with each 25,5%, Arbeiterwohlfahrt (labor welfare association) with 7,9 %, Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband (parity welfare association) with 3,6 %, German Red Cross with 2,4 % and Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden (Jewish welfare association) with 0,7 %. The rest is free float.[4]

Business mission

The BFS offers all services and products of a universal bank. However, it is a specialized commercial bank in regards to its limited range of customers. The consulting is focused on the traditional business and includes not only banking specific aspects but also financing terms and conditions of health and social management. Those are especially shaped by social insurances and social legislation. In addition, the bank offers branch specific products such as social economic mezzanine fonds, online-factoring and services for donation-based organizations.

Services like production site and competitor analysis for care homes, feasibility studies, collateral value assessments and valuation reports, a wide-ranging seminar program as well as publications and presentations on the latest legal and economic issues in the health and social management sector are also on offer at BFS.

BFS operates in 16 locations in Germany (Berlin, Dresden, Erfurt, Essen, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Cologne, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mainz, Munich, Nuremberg, Rostock, Stuttgart) and runs a European office in Brussels.[3]

Key figures
Index 2017[3] 2016[5] 2015[6] 2014[7] 2013[8] 2012[8]
Total assets
(in million Euro)		 8.652,5 8.693,6 9.360,5 9.314,8 8.669,6 7.314,7
Average number of staff
(Full- and part-time employee)		 413 407 374 354 339

Anti-Semitism accusation

The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the bank in its annual list of the ten worst global anti-Semitism incidents (after 1945) in 2018.[9] The reason was an account that it held which led to the European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP). According to various sources, this group of Jews and Israelis is linked to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The account was terminated, which in turn also attracted protests. Because of this event, the bank commissioned Juliane Wetzel, a staff member of the Berlin Center for Research on Antisemitism, to examine whether or not the "Jewish Voice", a German EJJP member organization, was anti-Semitic. This also sparked protests: Iris Hefets, of the executive committee of the "Jewish Voice", revolted in January 2019 that her organization, consisting exclusively of Jews, on behalf of a German bank should be found as "guilty or acquitted of anti-Semitism by a German expert".[10] In a press statement, the bank decisively rejected the reproach of the anti-Semitism. It has no business relationship with the BDS campaign, nor does it support its objectives: "Boycotting aimed at destabilizing the state of Israel is incompatible with our corporate policies. The BDS campaign would never get an account with us."[11]

References
  1. "Ohne Herkunft keine Zukunft: unsere Geschichte". Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  2. "Wohlfahrtsverbände betreiben ihr eigenes Kreditinstitut". Handelsblatt. 17 September 2004. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. "Geschäftsbericht 2017". Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  4. "Verwurzelt in der Freien Wohlfahrtspflege". Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  5. "Geschäftsbericht 2016" (PDF). Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  6. "Geschäftsbericht 2015" (PDF). Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  7. "Geschäftsbericht 2014" (PDF). Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  8. "Geschäftsbericht 2013" (PDF). Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  9. "2018 Top Ten Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents" (PDF). Simon Wiesenthal Center. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  10. Reinecke, Stefan (10 January 2019). "Zwischen den Stühlen". taz. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  11. "Statement der Bank für Sozialwirtschaft zur Listung "Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents" des Simon Wiesenthal Center". Bank für Sozialwirtschaft. 18 December 2018. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.

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