Eco bank

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Ökobank eG
legal form cooperative
founding March 17, 1984
resolution 2003
Reason for dissolution Takeover / dissolution
Seat Frankfurt am Main
Number of employees 65
Branch Lending
Status: 2000

The Ökobank eG was a German cooperative bank , the initiators of which were recruited from the Frankfurt alternative and spontaneous movement as part of the dispute over alternative economy . It advertised with principles such as "alternatives are possible" and (against the background of the debate about the NATO double decision ) "no money in armaments".

The banking business of Ökobank eG was taken over in 2003 by GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG due to a self-inflicted economic difficulties . The cooperative continues to exist today as Oekogeno eG.

aims

The goals of the Ökobank were to provide funding for the alternative businesses that were emerging at the time, which at that time were not yet supported by traditional banks, and to promote development in the so-called Third World . According to the statutes, the “promotion of businesses and projects in the field of self-government, cooperative society, ecology and peace ... should (be) given special importance”. The banking business was therefore divided into a promotional area and a normal area .

Visions of an “alternative economic cycle ” were associated with the establishment of the Ökobank . The Ökobank should provide the financial means to set such a cycle in motion.

history

The association Friends and Patrons of the Ökobank , founded on March 17, 1984 in the premises of the workers' self-help , had the task of collecting the initial capital, developing a banking concept and obtaining approval for the bank. He was close to the monthly newspaper Contraste . In 1984, the “start-up financing” was provided by the self-help network . The question of deposit insurance proved difficult from the start. Finally, with the permission of the Federal Banking Supervisory Office and with a cooperative capital of 7.8 million DM , which was made available by around 12,700 trustors , the Ökobank was entered in the register on March 31, 1988 and on May 2, 1988 in Frankfurt am Main to be opened.

The concept encompassed all traditional banking transactions with the exception of forfaiting and securities and custody business. It offered savings accounts , environmental savings certificates and loans, the upper limit of which was set at a maximum of DM 750,000 per customer. The total loan volume remained limited to 60 percent of the balance sheet total or could not be higher than three times the equity capital .

Ecobank EC card (2001)

After years of negotiations, in 1996 it was accepted into the deposit protection fund of the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (BVR) , whereby the then existing loss carryforward of DM 3.3 million had to be secured in other ways. The latter was achieved through the subscription of security letters by 542 members. This created the prerequisites for an expansion of the lending business.

In 1999 and 2000, the Ökobank got into financial difficulties due to management errors. At that time it had a balance sheet volume of 380 million DM and 24,000 members. For the restructuring, the banking business was first outsourced to Bankaktiengesellschaft (BAG) Hamm . After two years of negotiations, this was taken over at the beginning of 2003 by GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG . The devalued shares in Ökobank were converted into new shares in the financial services cooperative Oekogeno.

literature

  • Arno Huber, Rolf Schwendter : The Ökobank . Business enterprise or religious community? AG SPAK, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3-923126-47-7 .
  • Leo Schuster (ed.): The social responsibility of the banks . Erich Schmidt, 1997, ISBN 3-503-04312-8 .
  • Ökobank and GLS Community Bank cooperate - inevitably . In: Contraste . ( Online [accessed April 14, 2010]).
  • Hard profit orientation? In: Contraste . ( Online [accessed April 14, 2010]).
  • Banking business is outsourced - the cooperative continues . In: Contraste . ( Online [accessed April 14, 2010]).
  • Goodbye Ökobank! In: Contraste . ( Online [accessed April 14, 2010]).

Web links

  • uni-marburg.de / ... - Article "What became of the Ökobank?" from January 23, 2012 (PDF file, 207 KB, accessed on March 5, 2014)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manager Magazin (Ed.): Faded dreams . Everything off - no more alternative for the alternative credit institution. June 20, 2001 ( HTML [accessed August 26, 2012]).
  2. ↑ Bernward Janzing : "Cluster risk dealt the bank the death blow" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . April 30, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 9 ( taz.de [accessed April 30, 2018]).
  3. ↑ See Articles of Association §2, quoted from: Schuster, p. 180 . Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  4. ↑ Bank with a clear conscience , Deutschlandradio, May 2, 2013, About the establishment of the Ökobank in the Krebsmühle
  5. ↑ Dietmar Schwarz: is going on at oekogeno.htm What is going on at OekoGeno? . Retrieved December 20, 2012
  6. ↑ See Schuster, p. 176 . Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  7. ↑ Meyer's Annual Report 1988, p. 92, ISBN 3-411-02309-0
  8. ↑ See Schuster, p. 201 . Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  9. ↑ See history of the GLS-Bank . Archived from the original on January 4, 2012. Retrieved on December 30, 2010.
  10. ↑ See process of taking over the banking business by GLS-Bank . Retrieved December 30, 2010.