After an increase in profits in 2021, the Frankfurter Volksbank expects good business in the current year.

The CEO of Germany's second largest cooperative bank in terms of total assets, Eva Wunsch-Weber, said on Wednesday that she expects the pandemic's impact on the economy to decrease and that there will be catch-up effects in consumption.

In addition, Wunsch-Weber assumes a slight increase in interest rates, and she rated statements from the European Central Bank as "a positive signal".

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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After a dip in 2020, which was mainly due to the Corona crisis, the operating result increased by ten percent to 91.9 million euros, the annual surplus grew by a good 13 percent to 14.6 million euros.

In view of the 160th anniversary since the institute was founded, Wunsch-Weber said that this year the 246,000 members of the bank should be paid a dividend of 7.6 percent instead of the usual six percent share in the good results.

The basis for growth in 2021 was, among other things, the real estate loan business, but also the increase in customer deposits.

In the future, the bank could also grow through further mergers. In the past three decades, the Volksbank has been involved in a total of twenty mergers, most recently with the Bavarian VR-Bank Alzenau.

According to Wunsch-Weber, the company is currently in negotiations with the significantly smaller Rüsselsheimer Volksbank.

Own app in development

The bank is also modernizing its branch network and driving digitalization forward.

The Volksbank wants to present its own app before the end of this year, which should go beyond the functions of the application offered by the service provider Atruvia for the cooperative association.

In addition, Wunsch-Weber referred to "enough scope for growth initiatives".

At the end of last year, the bank presented a new Internet platform designed to help customers make important decisions, for example when it comes to purchasing an e-charging station or renovating an old building.

They want to expand and deepen their own value chain.