Bank for the common good

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The Bank für Gemeinwohl ( BfG ) was a project for the establishment of an ethical and sustainable alternative on the Austrian financial market , which has been run by activists from the Attac Austria environment since 2008 . Christian Felber is considered the initiator . The project failed in 2018 after the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) did not issue a banking license . Some non-licensed activities of the founding association, such as crowdfunding and an academy, are to be continued.

history

The idea for an alternative bank arose in 2008 as a reaction to the financial and banking crisis and specifically to the request by Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann to set up a "bad bank" for Germany. In response to this, the publicist and author Christian Felber called for a “bank of trust” and started a working group within Attac Austria which in 2010 presented a project paper “Democratic Bank”. The first regional groups came together at the “Meeting of the Regions” at Goldegg Castle in Salzburg.

From May 2011 everyone could become a member of the "Association for the Promotion and Foundation of a Democratic Bank". In August 2011, 18 people developed the banking strategy and a business plan. From January 2013, the two project managers Markus Stegfellner and Ralf Widtmann took over discussions with important interest groups (deposit insurance associations, authorities, courts, auditors, lawyers). In August 2013 the initiative was given a new name: Project Bank for Common Good.

Preparations

On April 30, 2014, the BfG owners and administration cooperative was founded. The Austrian Cooperative Association (ÖGV) refused acceptance, so the cooperative was entered in the commercial register on December 18, 2014 as an association-free cooperative. Robert Moser and Christine Tschütscher became directors of the cooperative.

At an extraordinary general assembly on February 25, 2016, Peter Zimmerl was elected as the new board member of the BfG cooperative. Zimmerl previously worked for the payment transaction processor Paylife .

Following a resolution in the General Assembly on October 1, 2016, work was carried out on the implementation of a public interest assessment, a crowdfunding platform, cooperation with partner banks and the establishment of a payment institution with a public interest account (as a preliminary stage to a full banking license). Christine Tschütscher stepped down from the board in December 2016.

The Academy for the Common Good was opened in April 2017. In May 2017, the first crowdfunding projects were offered to the public for financing. They had previously passed a public welfare test developed by the cooperative . In June 2017, the cooperative announced that GLS , Germany's largest socio-ecological bank, would participate as an investor in setting up the payment institution. The GLS Bank withdrew in 2018.

Failure of the application

In June 2018, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) rejected the application by the Bank für Gemeinwohl (BfG) owner and management cooperative to be granted a license as a payment institution. The Executive Board stated that in 2015 it was not possible to raise the start-up capital of 15 million euros for the establishment of a bank, and the 6 million euros to start the licensing process at the FMA were not achieved either. A total of 4.2 million euros were collected from 6,000 members of the cooperative. In 2016 it was decided to get a license as a pure payment institution; this also failed with the rejection of the FMA. In June 2018, the board announced that around a third of the cooperative capital was still available. In September 2018, at an extraordinary general meeting, the cooperative capital was reduced by 75%, which meant a total loss of over 3 million euros of the capital employed for the approximately 6,000 members of the cooperative. In future, the cooperative is to be financed by means of crowdfunding.

Cooperation with Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen

After the failure of its own concession, a common good account was set up as a pure giro account in cooperation with the environmental center of the Upper Austrian Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen from May 2019 . It was reported in May 2019 that membership in the cooperative for the common good is a prerequisite for receiving the public welfare account. There are already around 5,000 existing cooperative members. The environmental center is to grant the total amount of the deposit - as loans - exclusively to ecologically and socially sustainable projects.

According to the cooperative's "transparency report", by the end of June 2019 a total of 400 applications to open a public interest account had been received. As of May 2020, Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen eGen (Environment Center) continues to offer the Raiffeisen Future Account (= common good account) .

Condition for the receipt of this common good (giro) account for the user is the declaration of joining the Cooperative for Common Good (GfG), the contribution of a self-chosen amount of cooperative shares and the payment of a membership fee. (As of November 2019)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BfG owner / -indoors- and Verwaltungsgenossenschaft, registered cooperative with limited liability, company registration number: FN 420093 i
  2. ↑ Christian Bartlau: Anti-capitalist, me? In: Die Zeit, No. 37/2015, September 10, 2015
  3. ^ Announcement Project Bank für Gemeinwohl ots.at, March 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ Johanna Ruzicka: Ethikbanker Zimmerl: "Contributing to the common good" Der Standard, derstandard.at, January 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ Bank for Common Welfare downsized Board of Directors fondsprofessionell.at, December 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ GLS joins the Austrian Public Welfare Bank on June 19, 2017.
  7. ↑ Cooperative idea : Commonwealth bank has failed, two thirds of the capital gone derstandard.at, June 15, 2018, accessed November 23, 2019.
  8. ↑ Renate Graber: Commonwealth bank failed, two thirds of the capital gone . In: Der Standard, derstandard.at, June 15, 2018.
  9. ↑ The costly failure of the bank for the common good. In: addendum.org. October 30, 2019, accessed November 5, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Editor: Cooperative for the common good continues without a banking license . In: Der Standard, derstandard.at, June 20, 2018.
  11. ↑ Failed public welfare bank starts with Raiffeisen support. In: fondsprofessionell.at. May 9, 2019, archived from the original ; accessed on March 4, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Transparency report June 2019 January 1, 2020
  13. ↑ Fee information for the Raiffeisen future account January 1, 2020, accessed May 18, 2020.
  14. ↑ How to get to your Gemeinwohlkonto verewohlkonto.at, accessed November 23, 2019.