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 Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Ownership

The bank was founded in March 1923 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.''. In 1929 it became the ''Berufsgenossenschaft für Gesundheitsdienst und Wohlfahrtspflege''. Still today

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

s of the bank are umbrella organizations of the free social welfare and its

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

. 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.

Business mission

The BFS offers all services and products of a

universal bank A universal bank participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a commercial bank and an investment bank as well as providing other financial services such as insurance.customer In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for ...

s. 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 (

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

) and runs a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an office in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

BFS Service GmbH

BFS Service GmbH was founded in 1989 as a subsidiary of the Bank for Social Economy. It is based in Cologne's Rheinauhafen. The purchase of receivables (factoring) is the main business area of BFS Service GmbH. Customers include outpatient nursing services, rescue services, patient transport, hospitals and rehabilitation clinics that pre-finance their services through BFS Service GmbH. In addition, the company has specialized in the areas of consulting and analysis as well as the preparation of reports (mortgage value reports, traffic and market value reports) for the health and social economy.

Key figures

Anti-Semitism accusation

The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the bank in its annual list of the ten worst global

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

incidents (after 1945) in 2018. 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 Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and

Israelis Israelis ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵלִים‎, translit=Yīśrāʾēlīm; ar, الإسرائيليين, translit=al-ʾIsrāʾīliyyin) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jew ...

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 The Center for Research on Antisemitism (''Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung'', ZfA) at the Technical University, Berlin is a research centre dedicated to "researching and combating anti-Semitism."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."

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Banks of Germany Medical and health organisations based in Germany Banks established in 1923 German companies established in 1923