KfW and WIBank agree to pilot partnership to advance online approval for promotion

Frankfurt am Main (ots) -

- WIBank links its commercial promotional products to KfW's
digital platform
- Costumers and financing partners benefit from improved
- The goal is to build a digital promotion platform that
incorporates institutions across Germany

KfW and WIBank, the promotional institution of the German state of
Hesse, have agreed to integrate WIBank's commercial promotional
products into KfW's online promotional funding platform. As a result,
small and medium-sized companies, the self-employed, and business
owners in Hesse will be able to apply online for WIBank and KfW
promotional funds via their financing partners in future. Their
applications will be automatically checked, meaning a decision can be
made in a matter of minutes. The pilot partnership between the two
promotional institutions is geared towards developing the current
platform into a sales and service platform, which will allow all of
Germany's state-level promotional institutions to offer their own
products independently and in a customer-oriented manner. In addition
to WIBank, KfW has another pilot partner in the form of L-Bank, the
promotional institution of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Launched in 2014 under the name "On-Lending Online 2.0 (BDO 2.0)",
KfW's promotional platform built the technical foundations needed to
ensure simple and swift digital access to promotional funds in
Germany. Financing partners can apply for funding online on behalf of
their clients. Applications can then be checked automatically with a
binding financing decision made within just a few minutes. Financing
partners and borrowers benefit from improved transparency, speed and
funding security in equal measure.

KfW issued its first digital approval back in 2014 as part of a
financing programme in the housing sector. KfW has been gradually
integrating commercial financing and automatic approvals into its
promotional funding platform since 2016. Housing grants are now also
processed online on KfW's grant portal.

The aim of transforming BDO 2.0 into a sales and service platform
(SSP) is to create a digital ecosystem for promotional funding in
Germany. As strong, regionally active providers of promotional
funding, the promotional institutions of the federal states play a
central role in this process. And the plan is to expand
digitalisation of promotional business even further than just the
cooperation between KfW and the promotional institutions of the
federal states. The aim is to create a multi-bank, online system that
connects funding providers, banks, credit unions, savings banks,
financial brokers, experts and borrowers and enables them all to
cooperate.

While WIBank may be KfW's pilot partner on the one hand, it is
also a pilot institution in a consortium of nine state promotional
institutions (a banking cooperative) on the other. The goal of this
cooperative is to improve the efficiency of the promotional funding
process and make it more customer-friendly. As a result of this move,
the SSP will enable national and state promotional institutions in
Germany to establish a broad cooperation where all partners are on
equal footing. The new digital ecosystem will also help to achieve an
unprecedented level of transparency and effectiveness in the field of
promotional funding in Germany.

"Digitalisation is not an end in itself. It's about quicker,
easier and more transparent processes for everyone involved, and thus
also for the people in Germany and our local businesses. The pilot
partnership with KfW and the plans to build a digital ecosystem for
promotional funding are not just a vision; they are essential if we
are to play an active role in shaping the digital future in line with
our owners' social and economic goals," said Gottfried Milde,
Chairman of the Executive Board at WIBank.

With their pilot partnership, both KfW and WIBank are moving
forward with their digital transformation. "In WIBank, we have gained
a strong partner for the digitalisation of the promotional sector and
the transformation of our sales and service platform BDO 2.0.
Together, we are paving the way for private and commercial investors
in Hesse and a number of other German states to enjoy even quicker
and simpler financing decisions for their projects. This partnership
is an important step towards improving digital ties within Germany's
promotional landscape for the benefit of costumers," said Dr Ingrid
Hengster, the member of the KfW Executive Board responsible for
domestic promotional business.

Further information on the digitalisation of the application and
approval process for promotional loans at KfW is available at (only
in German): http://ots.de/RU9ge8

Pressekontakt:
KfW, Palmengartenstr. 5 - 9, 60325 Frankfurt
Kommunikation (KOM), Christine Volk,
Tel. +49 (0)69 7431 3867, Fax: +49 (0)69 7431 3266,
E-Mail: Christine.Volk@kfw.de, Internet: www.kfw.de

Press Office WIBank: Claudia Ungeheuer, Phone: +49 69 91323716,
E-Mail: claudia.ungeheuer@wibank.de

Original-Content von: KfW, übermittelt durch news aktuell