2014 - a successful promotional year: volume of promotion rises to EUR 74.1 billion

Frankfurt am Main (ots) -

- Domestic promotional business an effective stimulus totalling
EUR 47.6 billion, despite challenging conditions
- International finance rises to EUR 25.5 billion
- KfW global leader in the field of climate and environmental
finance (EUR 26.6 billion)
- Contribution of EUR 8 billion to the "Juncker plan" reflects
growing importance within Europe (2015-2017)
- Digitalisation of the promotional business: online platform
successfully launched

As in the years before, the KfW Group registered strong demand for
its financing products in 2014, despite a challenging environment.
The volume of new promotional commitments rose to a total of EUR 74.1
billion (2013: EUR 72.5 billion). The focus of these commitments was
still on promoting SMEs, start-ups and innovative companies. KfW also
continued to build up its position as the global leader in the field
of climate and environmental finance (EUR 26.6 billion).

Despite the challenging conditions on the market, KfW's domestic
promotional business achieved a high volume in 2014 with new
commitments amounting to EUR 47.6 billion (2013: EUR 51.6 billion).
The year-on-year decline had been anticipated, and mainly concerned
corporate finance. Given the persistent reluctance to invest and
economic uncertainty combined with the high levels of liquidity held
by companies, demand for credit among German companies was muted on
the whole.

The volume of international financing business, consisting of the
Export and Project Finance business sector (KfW IPEX-Bank), the KfW
Development bank business area and the subsidiary DEG, rose by 25% to
EUR 25.5 billion (2013: EUR 20.5 billion). Demand rose for KfW
IPEX-Bank in its role as an export and project finance specialist.
KfW Development Bank also saw strong growth in its climate and
environmental financing activities, in particular in the financing of
environmentally friendly power generation and supply, which was the
subject of almost half of all new commitments.

"2014 was a successful year for our promotional activities.
Despite challenging economic conditions, KfW was able to make an
important contribution to the development of innovation, growth and
climate protection, in Germany and around the world. In doing so, it
lived up to the growing demands on promotional banks to overcome
global economic weakness" said Dr Ulrich Schröder, CEO of the KfW
Group.

KfW will be contributing around EUR 8 billion to the European
investment programme (the "Juncker plan") between 2015 and 2017. The
plan includes bilateral measures such as granting global loans to
European promotional banks with a focus on financing the SME sector,
intensifying securitisation activities, providing venture capital,
project and equity finance as part of investment platforms including
the Marguerite fund for example. "Germany and Europe still face
enormous challenges. National promotional banks like KfW play an
important role in this context, for instance in connection with the
Juncker plan" said Dr Schröder.

KfW is implementing a large number of measures as part of its
modernisation efforts. One important aspect of these is the BDO
online platform. In 2014, KfW launched this new online platform for
housing sector programmes in partnership with Deutsche Postbank. For
the first time, the platform allows applications for promotional
loans to be accepted immediately, less than a minute after they are
submitted. Commerzbank has also been using the service as a second
financing partner since December 2014. In 2015 and in subsequent
years, more financing partners will gradually be connected to the BDO
platform, and products for commercial borrowers will be added to the
range of BDO-compatible KfW products from 2016. "The digitalisation
of the applications process is essential for safeguarding the
long-term prospects of promotional lending as a successful model"
said Dr Schröder.

Details of the business sectors' promotional results

The volume of new business for the Mittelstandsbank business
sector came to EUR 19.9 billion (2013: EUR 22.6 billion). SMEs
accounted for 44% of all domestic promotion. While commitments in the
field of general corporate finance declined overall (EUR 7.6 billion,
2013: EUR 8.6 billion), the important priority sector of start-ups
(EUR 2.8 billion) was able to maintain roughly the same volume as in
the prior year (EUR 2.7 billion). Innovation financing also bucked
the trend by rising sharply to EUR 1.4 billion (2013: EUR 1.0
billion).

A solid promotional volume of EUR 8.2 billion was achieved for the
environment priority sector (2013: EUR 10.3 billion). KfW's energy
efficiency programme returned to the volume recorded in 2012 (EUR 3.2
billion) following a record year in 2013 (EUR 4.7 billion). The
volume of commitments in connection with KfW's renewable energies
programme was largely unchanged at EUR 4.1 billion (2013: EUR 4.7
billion).

The new commitments in the Kommunal- und Privatkundenbank/
Kreditinstitute business sector amounted to EUR 27.7 billion in 2014
(2013: EUR 28.9 billion). The housing priority sector maintained its
momentum with EUR 14.3 billion (2013: EUR 15.6 billion). Despite the
reluctance to invest on account of discussions surrounding the fiscal
promotion of energy-efficient refurbishment, the energy-efficient
construction and renovation programmes made a substantial
contribution of EUR 9.3 billion towards the high volume of promotion
(2013: EUR 10.4 billion).

The volume of new commitments in the field of infrastructure
financing came to EUR 4.0 billion (2013: EUR 4.7 billion). The
decline in 2014 can mainly be attributed to the absence of
promotional products to expand child daycare facilities. In addition
to the basic products for municipalities (IKK) as well as those for
municipal and social companies (IKU), the special programmes for
supplying neighbourhoods in connection with urban energy efficiency
rehabilitation measures were in particular demand in 2014. The high
volume of commitments in the education and social priority sector
last year (EUR 2.6 billion) was repeated again this year.

In the field of general refinancing for promotional institutions
of the federal states, the volume of cooperation rose from EUR 3.6
billion in 2013 to EUR 4.6 billion. As part of the individual
financing of banks, a promotional volume of EUR 2.2 billion (2013:
EUR 2.5 billion) was achieved with the refinancing of export loans
and granting of global loans to support investment in leasing as well
as SMEs and energy efficiency in Europe. This amount includes
commitments to the Institution for Growth (Greece), the Strategic
Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti
(CDP, Italy) on behalf of the German Federal Government, with a total
volume of EUR 750 million.

The Capital markets business sector contributed a volume of EUR
1.2 billion (2013: EUR 651 million) consisting of securitisation
transactions for loans to German SMEs and leasing claims.

The Export and Project Finance business sector for which KfW's
subsidiary KfW IPEX-Bank is responsible generated new commitments
adding up to EUR 16.6 billion (2013: EUR 13.7 billion). The main
contributors to this result were the sector departments Maritime
Industries (EUR 2.9 billion), Basic Industries (EUR 2.7 billion) and
Power, Renewables and Water (EUR 2.3 billion). A major portion of
KfW IPEX-Bank's financing activities in Maritime Industries can be
attributed to cruise ships and to offshore industry investments.
Several high-volume export financing transactions were the main
drivers of the increase in the volume of commitments in Basic
Industries during the past year. The key role of Power, Renewables
and Water underscores KfW IPEX-Bank's ambition to make a significant
contribution to environmental and climate protection through its
financings. Alongside the rise in the volume of new business,
cooperation with partner banks in the form of syndicates has also
grown increasingly important.

Over the past year, KfW Development Bank recorded the largest
volume of new commitments in its history, providing around EUR 7.4
billion (2013: EUR 5.3 billion) on behalf of the German federal
government for development programmes around the world. The growth in
the volume of commitments for climate and environmental protection
was particularly strong, with its share rising from 53% in the
previous year to its current level of 64%. However, commitments for
the poorest partner countries also remained high, with almost 40% of
German federal budget funds going to projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
Commitments with a total volume of around EUR 500 million were
entered into in the "peace and security" field of promotion, reaching
about 15 million people in 22 different countries. These projects are
aimed at supplying refugees - especially in the Middle East and
Africa - as well as restoring basic infrastructure.

Over the past year, KfW's subsidiary DEG committed about EUR 1.47
billion (2013: EUR 1.45 billion) for the financing of private
investment in developing and emerging countries. This represented
another slight year-on-year increase. DEG provided German companies
investing in emerging and developing countries a significantly
increased financing volume of EUR 253 million (2013: EUR 152 million)
in 2014. There was similarly encouraging growth in the amount
invested in Africa and other future markets, with commitments
amounting to around EUR 855 million (2013: EUR 630 million). EUR 416
million of this amount was earmarked for Africa (2013: EUR 326
million). At EUR 691 million (2013: EUR 649 million), almost half of
the total volume of new commitments related to projects promoting the
protection of the climate and the environment, as well as adapting to
climate change.

In 2014, KfW raised long-term funds totaling EUR 57.4 billion on
the international capital markets to fund its promotional mandate
(2013: EUR 65.4 billion). This involved issuing 250 bonds in 13
different currencies, benefiting from continued demand on the part of
investors for high-volume liquid bonds (benchmark bonds). With a
share of 57%, they are the most important source of funding for KfW.
KfW's activities on the capital market were mainly characterised by
two innovative new products in 2014 - the issue of the first KfW
renminbi bond to be listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange, and the
issue of the first two KfW Green Bonds in EUR and USD. In this way,
KfW set standards for the market and contributed to the establishment
of these still young market segments.

In 2014, 83% of the total funding volume was raised in euros and
US dollars. Because of favourable funding conditions, KfW started
concentrating heavily on financing in foreign currencies in the early
summer of 2014. The overall proportion of foreign currencies stood at
about 55% at the end of the year. The bank plans to raise between EUR
55 billion and EUR 60 billion during the year in progress. With its
explicit, direct guarantee from the German federal government, KfW
believes it is in a prime position to easily achieve its planned
funding volume. In January 2015, KfW already borrowed EUR 8.7 billion
bn on the capital market.

Pressekontakt:
KfW, Palmengartenstr. 5 - 9, 60325 Frankfurt
Kommunikation (KOM), Dr Charis Pöthig,
Tel. +49 (0)69 7431 4683, Fax: +49 (0)69 7431 3266,
E-Mail: presse@kfw.de, Internet: www.kfw.de