Sparda-Bank West

Sparda-Bank West eG
Country	Germany
Seat	Dusseldorf
legal form	eG
Bank code	330 605 92
BIC	GENO DED1 SPW
founding	2002
Website	www.sparda-west.de
Business data 2019
Total assets	12.633 billion euros
insoles	11.362 billion euros
Customer credit	6.408 billion euros
Employee	1,024
Offices	82
Members	598.721
management
Board	Manfred Stevermann (Chairman) Andreas Lösing (Deputy Chairman) Michael Dröge Dominik Schlarmann
Supervisory board	Anke Beckemeyer (Chair)
List of cooperative banks in Germany

Business area of ​​Sparda-Bank West

The Sparda-Bank West eG is a cooperative bank for private clients based in Dusseldorf . It currently operates a total of 60 branches (as of July 2020). In terms of total assets, Sparda-Bank West is the second largest in the Sparda-Bank group in Germany and an actor in the Düsseldorf financial center .

Business principles

Sparda-Bank West is one of the eleven German cooperative banks that are part of the Association of Sparda-Banken e. V. are grouped together. Traditionally, they are all highly specialized in private banking. The customers acquire at least one share in the cooperative (the amount and the maximum number of shares that can be subscribed are determined individually by each Sparda bank in the articles of association) and are therefore members and co-owners of the bank together with other customers. An annual dividend is paid on the cooperative shares. For Sparda-Bank West it is currently (for the 2018 financial year) 2.00 percent. Members can subscribe for up to 100 cooperative shares at 52 euros each. The first current account was free for members until the introduction of fees for the BankCard in March 2016. On July 1, 2018, the bank introduced new current account models, some of which also charge account management fees. Since April 1, 2020, additional costs may arise for the account management: For SpardaGiro Flex, a flat base price for the account management of 6 euros per month is charged; there are seldom other fees. For SpardaGiro Online there is no base price for incoming salaries and pensions, but there is a cost of 5 euros per order for non-online payment orders such as transfers, rebooking and setting up / changing standing orders.

Bank code and BIC

Even after the merger of the Sparda banks in Essen, Cologne and Wuppertal in 2002 and the merger with the Sparda Bank Münster in 2018, the unified bank continues to use all four bank sort codes of the predecessor institutions. A uniform bank code has not yet been introduced, so that the branches of Sparda-Bank West continue to use the bank code according to their previous affiliation with the predecessor banks. The bank codes and the associated BICs of Sparda-Bank West are:

BLZ	BIC	formerly Sparda-Bank
360 605 91	GENODED1SPE	eat
370 605 90	GENODED1SPK	Cologne
330 605 92	GENODED1SPW	Wuppertal
400 605 60	GENODEF1S08	Muenster

Composite

The Sparda banks are part of the Association of Sparda Banks e. V., which carries out the mandatory examinations for them as an auditing association within the meaning of the Cooperative Society Act . The Sparda banks are also members of the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (BVR) and its security scheme. Like many other cooperative banks, they belong to the CashPool .

history

Sparda-Bank West eG was created in 2002 from the merger of the previously independent Sparda banks in Essen (founded in 1905), Wuppertal (founded in 1907) and Cologne (founded in 1922).

In 2018, Sparda-Bank Münster was merged with Sparda-Bank West. Around 630,000 members make the bank the credit union with the largest number of members in Germany.

Representative Assembly

The articles of association of Sparda-Bank West provide in § 26c that every five years in writing in all five electoral districts the election of the representative assembly takes place in the form of a list election. The last election took place on April 4, 2018. Of the 487,753 members entitled to vote, 61,131 voted, according to the customer magazine sparda aktuell (issue 2/2018); this corresponds to a participation of around 12.53 percent. Of the 56,098 valid votes, the 305 member representatives proposed by the electoral committee and the 48 substitute representatives received 52,832 votes in favor.

Those entitled to vote can find out more about the meeting of representatives and their tasks, powers, etc. in the articles of association of Sparda-Bank West under "Point C The meeting of representatives". The statutes also contain the election regulations for the representative assembly. It describes in detail the rules for holding the election of representatives. Every member of the cooperative bank can apply to Sparda-Bank West for the office of representative. The election committee examines the eligibility of the applicant according to § 4 of the election regulations. According to Section 8 of the Election Regulations, further proposals can be submitted even within the period of public display of the nominations. In principle, those entitled to vote can expect the elected representatives to represent the rights of the members in matters relating to the cooperative and to ensure that these are respected in the performance and structure of the cooperative.

When electing to the representative assembly, however, some of the voters do not find out at all, and some only through information that is difficult to access (but not through the election documents)

• how the already established standard list with the names of the applicants came about,

• under what circumstances all or which applicants are elected,

• which positions the applicants represent and what interests they stand for.

Thus, this is a decision based on a single and unchangeable list that does not allow any alternatives and is not transparent in many points. Those entitled to vote cannot even begin to know what they are doing with their election. The statutes also say nothing about what happens in the event of a successful election challenge.

Injunction

The Sparda-Bank West must not apply their current account more "free" than because they for the associated Girocard has introduced an annual fee of 10 euros in April 2016th This was decided by the Düsseldorf Regional Court on January 6, 2017 (file number 38 O 68/16) at the request of the Competition Center . Sparda-Bank West had argued that money could be withdrawn at the counter using a whitecard for the ATM. The court found this to be misleading, since a consumer assumes that he is receiving a Girocard with a checking account. Bank statement printers and self-service terminals cannot be used without a girocard.

Sparda donation choice

The SpardaSpendenWahl is an annual sponsorship competition by Sparda-Bank West, in which schools from the bank's core business area can participate with their project. The schools can win up to € 6,000. When applying, all participating schools are divided into one of the four size categories “very small schools”, “small schools”, “medium-sized schools” and “large schools”. There is a separate vote for each size category, in which the 50 schools that have received the most votes after the end of the vote are funded with a total of 100,000 euros from the net income of the profit saving association at Sparda-Bank West eV. Voting takes place via SMS .

Closure of branches

In the next three years, 43 of the remaining 82 branches will be closed. The employees were informed about this in November 2019 at a works meeting in Dortmund. The balance sheets of the past with very low surpluses, high interest expenses and low interest income had mainly contributed to the closure of branches. In part, these are apparently the consequences of the ECB's low interest rate policy . Manfred Stevermann, CEO of Sparda-Bank West, said about the closure of many branches: “Current analyzes show that our customers visit a branch less and less and prefer other possible contacts instead. As a cooperative bank that is geared towards the needs of its members and customers, we have to respond and adapt our offer to the wishes and expectations of our customers. "

Web links

Commons : Sparda-Bank  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Sparda-Bank West in the BaFin company database
• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Master data of the credit institute at the Deutsche Bundesbank
2. ↑ Annual Report 2019
3. ↑ sparda-west.de/membership
4. ↑ sparda-west.de/girokonto
5. ↑ See also the bank's imprint on its website
6. ↑ Düsseldorf District Court GnR 473 on August 17, 2018
7. ↑ Press release from Sparda-Bank West from August 17, 2018
8. ^ Articles of Association of Sparda-Bank West
9. ^ Court prohibits misleading advertising. In: Handelsblatt . January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017 . 
10. ^ LG Düsseldorf: Annual fee for "Girocard" is opposed to advertising with a free current account. In: beck-current . January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Christian Siedenbiedel: The tricks with the free checking accounts . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 17, 2017, accessed on January 22, 2017.
12. ↑ Conditions of Participation (GTC) | SpardaSpendenWahl: We support schools with 400,000 euros. Accessed June 27, 2019 (German). 
13. ↑ https://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/wirtschaft/artikel/1925927/sparprogramm-sparda-bank-schliesst-die-haelfte-der-filialen
14. ↑ https://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/wirtschaft/artikel/1925927/sparprogramm-sparda-bank-schliesst-die-haelfte-der-filialen

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 10.1 ″  N , 6 ° 47 ′ 48.4 ″  E