cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
bank which was founded in 1966. The bank is located in
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 ...
and is focused on a specifically defined clientele. These include the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and its institutions. Its members are business clients like hospitals, foundations, church-related housing construction, homes for disabled people, retirement homes and other institutions of provision – as well as a number of private customers: staff members of the institutions mentioned above. By now people who do not work for the church can also become customers as well as atheists or people of other
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
s. Due to the bank's
ethic
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
sustainability orientation, numerous customers from the charitable-foundations-field have joined the bank in recent years. Companies that are solely profit oriented are, according to the bank, not part of the bank's customer base.
The BIB is as well as the ''Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG'' in
Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
, the ''DKM Darlehnskasse Münster'' and the
Pax-Bank
Pax-Bank eG is a German bank that focuses on Christian finance headquartered in Cologne. The bank states that is a german: Bank für Kirche und Caritas (Bank for the Church and Charities), a cooperative Catholic universal bank. Its members consis ...
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 ...
one of the four
catholic church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
banks in
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
. Measured by the bank's total assets in 2016 the ''Bank im Bistum Essen'' makes place 21 on the list of the largest cooperative banks in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
The bank offers the whole range of services 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.
Range of services
The bank's services include:
* Financing of social properties like hospitals and care homes
* Financing of housing construction
* Deployment of electronic bank services
* Asset management from savings accounts through to investments in special funds in due consideration of ethic sustainability aspects
Sustainability and social responsibility
According to the bank sustainability is part of the business policy of the ''Bank im Bistum Essen'' Environmental impacts of the bank's business activities are being measured in an internal
Life-cycle assessment
Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the Product lifecycle, life cycle of a commercial product, Process lifecycle, process, or ...
. Goal of the life cycle assessment is to improve operating numbers for "electricity", "heating energy", "paper", "water" and "waste" permanently, to make an appropriate contribution toward environmental protection. In addition, all of the bank's own investments are to be invested according to ethic-social criteria. The bank's product range is constantly updated with sustainable products. This includes ethic-sustainable managed funds as well as the initiation and the management of microfinance funds.
The bank's foundation ''Kirche und Caritas'' supports regional, national and international projects.
Microfinance
Since 2006, the bank offers loans worldwide to microfinance institutions. Apart from this the bank has launched two microfinance funds for institutional investors in which the bank itself invested as well and which is managed by the bank itself. The ''Bank im Bistum Essen eG.'' is the first
credit
Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...
institution in Germany that offers private customers the possibility to invest into the microfinance sector via a
passbook
A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank or building society transactions on a deposit account.
Traditionally, a passbook was used for accounts with a low transaction volume, such as savings accounts. A bank teller or postma ...