GLS community bank

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GLS Community Bank eG
logo
Exterior view of the headquarters in Bochum
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Bochum
legal form registered cooperative
Bank code 430 609 67
BIC GENO DEM1 GLS
founding 1974
Association Cooperative Association - Association of Regions
Website www.gls.de
Business data 2019
Total assets 6,718 million euros
insoles 5,563 million euros
Customer credit 3,776 million euros
Employee 674
Offices 8th
Members 65,300
management
Board Thomas Jorberg (speaker), Christina Opitz, Aysel Osmanoğlu, Dirk Kannacher
Supervisory board Philip Lettmann (Chairman)
List of cooperative banks in Germany
Entrance to the head office in Bochum

The GLSgemeinschaftbank eG (the abbreviation GLS stands for “community bank for lending and giving”) is a cooperative bank and, according to its own information, the first eco-bank in the world.

The GLS Community Bank belongs to the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (BVR) and its security scheme. Its head office is in Bochum , with branches in Munich , Hamburg , Frankfurt am Main , Stuttgart , Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin .

history

The GLS community bank was founded on March 11, 1974 by the anthroposophists Gisela Reuther, Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff , Albert Fink and Rolf Kerler and was the first bank to work according to socio-ecological principles. Regardless of their anthroposophical roots, their spectrum today extends far beyond this milieu.

At the beginning of 2003, GLS took over the business of the Ökobank , which had got into financial difficulties and had emerged from the environmental movement . With the takeover of IntegraBank (Munich) in 2008, GLS also increased its commitment in the Christian church sector. In 2009 the GLS Community Bank was a founding member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values . The board currently consists of Thomas Jorberg and Christina Opitz and was expanded to include Aysel Osmanoğlu and Dirk Kannacher on October 1, 2017.

The GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG group now includes the GLS Treuhand Foundation, GLS Beteiligungs AG, GLS Energie AG, the GLS Bank Foundation, GLS ImmoWert GmbH and the BioBoden Cooperative.

GLS Beteiligungs AG develops equity solutions for companies and projects in the renewable energies, ecological nutrition and sustainable economy sectors. It is a subsidiary of GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG and has an international focus.

Business principle

The bank finances more than 11,000 companies and projects each year that are active in areas such as independent schools and kindergartens, renewable energies , facilities for the disabled, housing, sustainable construction and living in old age. Alcohol , atomic energy , embryo research , green genetic engineering , armaments , tobacco , child labor and animal experiments , among others , are not financed . The bank sees transparency in its lending as part of its corporate philosophy. All loans granted to companies are published in the customer magazine Der Bankspiegel .

Transparency and co-determination mean that customers can determine where their money should be invested when opening an account. The deposits can be made in the following sectors:

  • Renewable energy
  • nutrition
  • Sustainable economy
  • Living
  • Education and culture
  • Social and health

Since 2012 it has been possible for the cooperative bank to distribute part of the annual surplus to its members. The amount of the distribution is decided at the annual general meeting.

The company is certified according to Stop Climate Change in order to continuously improve its carbon footprint and regularly publishes the ecological impact of its activities. It also acts as a trustee for climate compensation under the Stop Climate Change program.

It also has global partners such as the International Association of Investors in the Social Economy (INAISE), Global Alliance for Banking on Values and the Institute for Social Banking .

financing

In November 2016, due to the European Central Bank's zero interest rate policy, the bank increased the account management fees from EUR 2 to EUR 3.80. On December 10, 2016, the general meeting decided to introduce the GLS fee , a new type of additional fee per customer. This is 5 euros a month and is intended to cover the bank's core services in order to become more independent of interest. The GLS contribution is also intended to support digital projects that drive the bank and its community forward. Examples of this are an app and a new community platform that were presented at the 2016 gathering.

special offers

Entrance area of ​​the headquarters with a wall of water

Lending and gift associations

The GLS Bank lending and donation group enables non-profit institutions to finance larger projects on a credit basis. Such a community is a group of up to 25 supporters, each of whom has personally committed to help repay the loan in monthly installments of a maximum of 50 euros - for a maximum of five years.

Microloans

The GLS Treuhand logo

With the Microcredit Fund Germany , the federal government wanted to facilitate access to capital for small businesses and start-ups. There are micro-loans granted by less than 20,000 euros, since it is often difficult for small businesses to obtain loans from larger banks. The aim of the program was to develop a comprehensive microcredit offer in Germany. The microcredits were granted by GLS Bank, on the recommendation of microfinance institutions that share in the success.

The microfinance fund, for which the federal government made EUR 100 million available, insured against possible loan defaults from the bank. Since 2000, the GLS Bank had granted microcredits as part of model projects, advanced practical research, provided venture capital and involved both public bodies and private initiatives. In the first year the GLS Bank was able to grant almost twice as many microcredits as planned and in the second year it was almost three times as many as initially estimated.

This form of lending ended in 2014, and the last loans expired in 2017.

Agriculture Foundation for the Future

The Future Foundation for Agriculture is a foundation of the GLS Treuhand eV The management lies with the GLS Treuhand. The foundation supports initiatives that are intended to contribute to the spread and further development of organic agriculture. This includes the promotion of seed research and animal welfare . According to its own statements, the foundation is also one of the active members of the We are fed up with it! Demonstrations. In economic terms, the foundation is to be viewed as separate from the GLS Bank.

Sustainable fund range

GLS Bank now offers its own stocks and funds that meet internal investment criteria.

CHAdeMO high- speed charging station from GLS Bank

E-mobility

In 2018, GLS Bank introduced giro-e, a barrier-free payment system for charging station operators. The means of payment is a bank card with an NFC chip . Registration is not necessary. The GLS Bank itself now has 24 charging points , 8 of which are publicly available.

Company figures

Balance sheet development of the GLS Bank 2001–2011
Development of the number of customers and members of GLS Bank 2005-2019 (2019: as of November 8, 2019)
Business figures
identification number 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Customer
change [%] 		47,500
0 		55,000
+7.9 		62,000
+12.7 		73,000
+17.7 		91,000
+24.65 		116,500
+27.5 		143,000
+ 23.3 		165,000
+ 16.0 		188,000
+ 14.0 		193,314
+ 2.8 		210,894
+ 9.1 		212,482
+ 0.8 		218,000
+ 2.6 		242,000
+ 11
Members
change [%] 		14,000 15,000 15,500 16,500 17,500 22,150 27,400
+ 23.7 		32,400
+ 23.7 		37,293
+ 15.1 		41,982
+ 12.6 		46,313
+ 10.3 		48,398
+ 4.5 		52,222
+ 7.9 		65,300
+ 25
Employees (without GLS Treuhand) 152 180 227 254 323 407 430 450 519 527 524 514 582 674
Balance sheet total [billion EUR]
only GLS Bank, without GLS Treuhand and GLS BAG,
annual change compared to previous year [%] 		0.5554
+11.7 		0.796
+20.4 		1.013
+27.4 		1.35
+33 		1.67
+36.7 		2.26
+22.5 		2.715
+ 20.0 		3.238
+ 19.3 		3.638
+ 12.4 		4.175
+ 14.7 		4.596
+ 10.1 		5.056
+ 10.0 		5.681
+ 12.4 		6.718
+ 18
Business volume [billion EUR]
GLS Group (bank, trust / foundations and investment business) 		0.614 0.991 1.232 1.6 2.4 2.497 2.954
Customer deposits [billion Euro]
change [%] 		0.478 0.654 0.824 1.134 1.602 1,969 2.354
+ 19.5 		2.817
+ 19.7 		3.138
+ 12.0 		3.618
+ 15.3 		3.904
+ 7.9 		4.134
+ 5.9 		4.668
+12.9 		5.563
+ 19
Equity [million Euro] 31.1 45.5 54.5 67.5 86.7 160 197 245 299 339 405 470 551
Business credit [million Euro] 177 232 270 334
Credit volume [million Euros]
(of which new allocation: volume / number) 		318
0 		472.7
98 		613.3
129 		717
0 		877
372 /
7,300 		1,122
0 		1,417
543 /
+26.2% 		1,652
+ 16.6% 		1,900
+ 15% 		2,130
+ 11.6% 		2,452
+ 15.2% 		3,037
+ 23.8% 		3,353
+ 10.4% 		3,776
+ 13%
Microcredits
(number / volume [€ million]) 		1,750
~ 10 		6,630
39.8 		no no no no no no

Awards and survey results

Wind turbine on the roof of the Christstrasse 11 extension

The GLS Community Bank has received a number of awards and prizes.

For example, it was named the most sustainable bank of the year in Europe by the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation in 2012 with the German Sustainability Award . Her commitment to refugees and against racism was also highlighted. In 2019, GLS Bank again won the German Sustainability Award in the "Corporate Partnerships" category together with Bio Foods (PVT) from Sri Lanka.

In surveys by the magazine Börse Online , the news channel n-tv and the German Institute for Service Quality , the GLS Bank was voted bank of the year in the specialist banks category from 2010 to 2019 . The basis were non-representative online surveys in which more than 33,700 participants rated their institutes (150 German banks, including all of the large private and cooperative banks and savings banks). For example, the quality of the offer and the advice as well as the transparency and security of the institutes were assessed. More than half of the participating GLS customers were under 35 and well educated. In 2019, GLS Bank won this award for the 10th time in a row.

In a large German bank test with over 100,000 customers in the spring of 2011, it received top marks for service as well as the most popular construction loan.

The GLS Bank blog was launched in November 2008 and won the "Golden Blog Award" in the Corporate Blogs section in 2016. The GLS Bank was able to prevail against Daimler-Benz and Frosta .

Activities going beyond banking

GLS Bank is a co-founder of the “CO2 Abgabe” association, which was founded on March 27, 2017 in Freiburg im Breisgau. An essential point of the targeted CO 2 tax is that it should be cost-neutral for each individual citizen. The restructuring of the tax system is intended to abolish levies such as the EEG surcharge and electricity tax and to introduce a levy on CO 2 to the same extent .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : GLS Community Bank  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Master data of the credit institute at the Deutsche Bundesbank
  2. ↑ https://www.gls.de/privatkunden/gls-bank/zahlen-ffekten/
  3. ↑ Imprint . Website of the GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG, accessed on March 26, 2018.
  4. ↑ Questions & Answers: What does GLS mean? Website of the GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG, accessed on March 8, 2015.
  5. ^ History. Retrieved March 11, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Rolf Kerler: A bank for people. From the beginnings and impulses of GLS Treuhand and GLS Bank. Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach / Switzerland 2011, ISBN 978-3-7235-1427-6 .
  7. ^ A bank in the green: Bochum bank defies the financial crisis , Deutschlandfunk on October 10, 2008
  8. ↑ See GLS (Ed.): Bankspiegel, Edition 2/2008, p. 21, ISSN  1430-6492
  9. ↑ GLS group of companies. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  10. ↑ mb: Visitors - GLS Treuhand. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Equity for the future. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 26, 2018 ; accessed on January 26, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Gagel wind farm: GLS Bank's new investment offer for a citizen-friendly energy transition. Retrieved November 10, 2018 .
  13. ↑ mb: Visitors - GLS Bank Foundation. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  14. ↑ GLS Immowert. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  15. ↑ BioBoden Genossenschaft: Home. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Use of funds ( Memento of February 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ What is the difference between the GLS Bank and other banks? In: www.gls.de. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  18. ↑ bench mirror. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Where does my money work? In: www.gls.de. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  20. ^ Statutes of the GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG, § 43. (PDF; 264 kB) December 3, 2011, accessed on March 4, 2012 .
  21. ↑ Stop Climate Change Certificate , figures ( memento of March 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and climate protection in the company ( memento of May 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on gls.de.
  22. ↑ GLS network. In: www.gls.de. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Peter Müller: GLS Bank current account test and experiences. In: GirokontoBerater.de. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  24. ↑ The contribution to meaningful banking. In: GLS-Beitrag.de. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Svenja Bergt: Higher fees for GLS bank accounts: eco, social, always more expensive . In: The daily newspaper: taz . June 20, 2016, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 22, 2020]).
  26. ↑ Karsten Seibel: Banks: This is how expensive accounts in Germany could soon be . In: The world . June 20, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed January 22, 2020]).
  27. ↑ The GLS platform :: In conversation with Helga Koch and Hannes Korten. In: vimeo.com. May 9, 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2017 .
  28. ↑ The “loan and gift community”: a special form of solidarity
  29. ↑ Special fund: Small businesses should hope for microloans ( memento of January 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Spiegel Online on January 27, 2010
  30. ^ A b GLS Bank: Socio-ecological banking business is booming , press release from February 9, 2011
  31. ↑ a b Microfinance offer from GLS Bank and Federal Government exceeds expectations ( memento from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), press release from January 13, 2012
  32. ↑ Future Foundation for Agriculture. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Press release of the Future Foundation for Agriculture of July 9, 2013 ( Memento of January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ↑ Press release of the Future Foundation for Agriculture of January 23, 2012 ( Memento of January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  35. ↑ GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG: GLS Investmentfonds . In: GLS Gemeinschaftbank eG . ( gls-fonds.de [accessed on January 26, 2018]).
  36. ↑ E-mobility. Retrieved July 31, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Numbers and facts. In: www.gls.de. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
  38. ↑ GLS Bank: Future- proof investing money - double-digit growth in 2005 ( Memento of February 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), press release of February 14, 2006
  39. ↑ GLS Bank: Very good growth with value-oriented banking offers ( memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), press archive from January 29, 2008
  40. ↑ GLS Bank looks back on 2008 ( memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), press release from February 5, 2009
  41. ↑ Grown by a third: GLS Bank makes sense for customers ( Memento from February 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), press release from February 9, 2010
  42. ↑ GLS Bank: Triple profit for members and customers ( memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), press release from January 25, 2012
  43. ↑ GLS Bank - Strengthened for the future ( memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), PM on January 30, 2013
  44. ↑ GLS Bank has been number 1 in sustainable banking for 40 years , PM on January 28, 2014
  45. ↑ Meaning instead of return , PM on January 28, 2015
  46. ↑ GLS Bank on course for the future with expanded management , press release from February 2, 2016
  47. ↑ GLS Bank: Annual financial statements 2016. In: gls.de. GLS Bank, accessed November 6, 2019 .
  48. ↑ GLS Bank: Annual financial statements 2017. In: gls.de. GLS Bank, accessed November 6, 2019 .
  49. ↑ The bank in numbers. GLS Bank, accessed September 9, 2019 .
  50. ↑ Facts & Figures. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
  51. ↑ 2013 FT / IFC sustainable finance awards: winners announced , Winners and Special Commendations , FT / IFC Sustainable Finance - Conference & Awards 2013, presented on June 13, 2013 in London
    Awards: GLS Bank is Europe's Sustainable Bank of the Year , PM , Blog , gls.de
  52. ↑ stern.de , accessed on March 9, 2016
  53. ↑ German sustainability award for corporate partnerships. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  54. ↑ The little ones triumph: Bank of the Year 2010 , N-tv on June 2, 2010
  55. ↑ Bankenaward 2010: David beats Goliath ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Börse Online on June 2, 2010
  56. ↑ a b Series winner: GLS Bank “Bank of the Year” for the 10th time. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  57. ↑ Customers choose the front runner: GLS Bank reaches the 100,000 customer mark and is again “Bank of the Year” ( Memento from June 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), press release on gls.de on June 8, 2011
  58. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  59. ↑ Awards of the GLS Bank
    Bank of the Year , n-tv on November 20, 2013
  60. ↑ Customer survey “Bank of the Year” in four categories , DISQ on November 20, 2013
  61. ↑ 'Börse Online' and n-tv choose the "Bank of the Year 2011": GLS Bank wins for the second time with the grade "very good" ( memento from September 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), press release from Börse Online / Gruner + Year on June 8, 2011 in the in the press portal
  62. ↑ Sustainability in demand: GLS - Best Bank of the Year 2011 , N-tv : Advice on Money on June 8, 2011
  63. ↑ 130,000 account holders took part in Germany's largest bank test. Result: changed customer needs - and a new “Beste Bank” , issue 05/11 of € uro (financial magazine) on April 20, 2011
  64. ↑ GLS Blog wins "Die Goldenen Blogger" Award 2016 - Das Blog . In: The blog . February 1, 2017 ( gls.de [accessed October 29, 2018]).
  65. ↑ Concept of CO2 tax archive. In: CO2 Abgabe eV - CO2 price on greenhouse gases. Retrieved February 5, 2019 .
  66. ↑ Andreas Wyputta: GLS boss on the coal phase -out: "Marketing for the environment" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . February 4, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed February 5, 2019]).
  67. ^ Association for a national CO2 tax founded. Retrieved February 5, 2019 .
  68. ^ Review in SWR2 Book of the Week , July 11, 2011.

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 14.9 "  N , 7 ° 13 ′ 11.3"  E