The Bank für Sozialwirtschaft AG is a specialized commercial bank for companies, institutions and organizations from the areas of health, social services and education which is located in Cologne and Berlin.
Ownership
The bank was founded in March 1923 at the urging of the Reichsarbeitsministeriums as financial institute of the Freie Wohlfahrtspflege and operated in the beginning under the name Hilfskasse gemeinnütziger Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen Deutschlands G.m.b.H.. 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 with each 25,5%, Arbeiterwohlfahrt with 7,9 %, Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband with 3,6 %, German Red Cross with 2,4 % and Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden with 0,7 %. The rest is free float.
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 economicmezzanine 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 and runs a European office in Brussels.
Key figures
Anti-Semitism accusation
The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the bank in its annual list of the ten worst global anti-Semitism incidents in 2018. The reason was an account that it held which led to the European Jews for a Just Peace. 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". 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."
