Numbers, numbers, numbers: Annual press conferences are sometimes a boring affair, because most of the time the focus is on balance sheet profits, interest rates, mortgage lending and customer deposits.

The Sparda-Bank turned things around on Thursday - and was the first to present new products, talked about digitization and sustainability - and only then about numbers.

Daniel Schleidt

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

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That's not untypical of the credit union, because they sometimes do things a little differently than the others.

For example, according to CEO Markus Müller, the house is the last Sparda bank in Germany that still offers a free current account.

And for a long time, they also resisted custody fees in Frankfurt, which numerous credit institutions have successively levied in recent years because of the negative interest rates.

"We wouldn't have lasted another year," Müller admits, but the ECB has meanwhile raised key interest rates significantly.

After all, these measures have recently brought numerous customers to the bank. Last year alone, more than 11,000 new customers opened almost 18,000 current accounts at the bank.

Portfolio changes

In terms of sustainability, the bank has brought forward its goal of not emitting any more carbon dioxide by 2045 to 2040 after efforts were stepped up last year: paper consumption was reduced by a third within twelve months, and the vehicle fleet was successively switched to alternative drives , the offices are heated less, although according to board member Rüdiger Orth, this meant that he had to hand out reading blankets – i.e. blankets with sleeves – to some employees.

At the same time, the bank is also switching to sustainability in its own investments; 97.2 percent of its investments meet the criteria.

Customers are not quite that far in this field yet, but in 2022 around half of all securities investments were sustainable, and overall Sparda has now exceeded the one-third mark here.

Overall, however, investments in funds fell significantly compared to the record year 2021, from 202 to 106 million euros.

In view of the difficult situation on the stock market, this value, which is after all the second highest in the company's history, is very satisfactory, said Müller.

It was a challenging year, said the CEO, citing the consequences of the corona pandemic, persistently high inflation and, above all, the war in Ukraine as the causes of the difficult market situation.

And then there were lots of numbers.

The bank issued more loans, especially mortgages, especially in the first half of the year, when interest rates were still low: Overall, the loan portfolio grew from 3.11 to 3.17 billion euros – behind it are almost 3,400 mortgages.

According to Müller, the higher balance sheet total is mainly due to the growth in customer deposits, which climbed by 7.5 percent to nine billion euros.

Sparda-Bank has not yet announced any interest on call money, "we are watching the market", says Müller, who is particularly looking forward to the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Sparda-Tower this year.

This is being built in Frankfurt's Europaviertel and is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

From the 34th floor you will have a good view of Frankfurt, he said.