The Steyler Bank is a German ethical-ecological

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

using

Christian finance Christian finance is a kind of ethical finance following Christian ethics. Although not widely used, the notion of "Christian finance" or "Catholic finance" refers to banking and financial activities which came into existence several centuries ag ...

principles that following the ''Steyler Missionare''. It was founded in 1964 in

Sankt Augustin Sankt Augustin (; Ripuarian: ''Sank Aujustin'') is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is named after the patron saint of the Steyler missionaries, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430). The missionaries estab ...

, where it still has its headquarters, and creates funds from an ethical point of view. The Steyler Bank also has a branch in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The Steyler Bank is a private bank in the legal form of a limited liability company and has share capital of around €2.5 million. The passive business is primarily operated for private and institutional clients. The focus is on investment advice and asset management. As bank of the Catholic '' Steyler Missionsorden'', it is also committed to the missionary mission, justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. It also offers foundation advisory services and manages 197 trustee foundations.

History

The bank was founded on 4 December 1963 under the name ''Steyler Missionssparinstitut Sankt Augustin GmbH''. After being entered in the

German Trade Register A German Commercial Register (, ) is a public company register that contains details of all tradespeople and legal entities in the district of the registrar, which is generally the Amtsgericht (local district court) of the place where the '' Landge ...

on February 13, 1964, the bank began operations. Previously, the ''Steyler Missionare'' had already been entrusted with funds whose interest income the missionaries could use for their work. This was no longer allowed by the ''Bankenaufsicht'' in 1964, so that the ''Steyler Missionare'' decided to found their own bank. While the focus was still on the classic field of investment until the late 1990s, from 2000 the securities sector was added. In this context, the name was changed to ''Steyler Bank GmbH'' in 1999. In 2002, the branch in Austria was opened. On 1 June 2018, it was transferred from the Mission House ''St. Gabriel in

Maria Enzersdorf Maria Enzersdorf (Central Bavarian: ''Maria Enzasduaf'') is a small city in the district of Mödling (district), Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. There are several castles and ruins in the forests surrounding Maria Enzersdorf, in ...

'' to the city center of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, because the previous rooms were needed by the Order for a different purpose.

Fields of activity

Customers

Only about 25% of the approximately 16,000 customers come from the metropolitan area of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. The much larger number comes from the entire German federal territory with a focus on the southern German area. The Steyler Bank is also active internationally. Customers do not have to be Catholic, live in the area of the

Archdiocese of Cologne The Archdiocese of Cologne (; ) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. History At an early date Christianity came to Cologne with the Roman soldiers ...

or be employed by a church sponsor. This distinguishes the Steyler Bank from similar church banks of other

religious denomination A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition, among other activities. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Oriental Orthodox Churches, non-Chalcedonian, E ...

Interest

The Steyler Bank pays marketable and usual interest rates. The customer decides whether a certain percentage of his interest will be made available to the Steyler mission's projects.

Securities

The Steyler Bank has been raising two separate funds since 2012. These are a stock and a pension fund. (Sustainability Fund together with the bank '' M.M.Warburg & CO''). However, the Steyler Bank's equity fund also contains investments in controversial companies, which the bank points to in a watchlist. With €2.5 million fund shares, the bank owns just under 18% of the €15 million equity fund itself. (As of June 30, 2013). Customers are also offered securities of other companies that meet defined social, cultural and environmental criteria.

Ethical investment

A key focus of the Steyler Bank is ethical, sustainable, or ESG investments. If the customer so wishes, they can use certain criteria to determine which exclusion criteria they wants to apply to their investments. Examples include:

Child labour Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

, the

nuclear industry Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

defense companies The Companies for the Defense of the Revolution (; ), commonly referred to as Defense Companies, Defense Corps or Defense Brigades (; ), were a Syrian all-Alawite paramilitary force commanded by Rifaat al-Assad. Their task was to safeguard and d ...

, etc. The bank cooperates in this context with the Munich agency oekom-research. The applied criteria go back to the ''Frankfurt-Hohenheimer Leitfaden'' by Johannes Hofmann.

Profit

The Steyler Bank managed client assets of €409.4 million in 2012 and generated a profit after

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

of €0.32 million. Together with the customers' interest and capital donations, the bank was able to pass on €3.37 million to the Steyler mission, which supports numerous aid projects in 70 countries around the world.

Deposit guarantee

The Steyler Bank is a member of the deposit insurance fund of the ''

Bundesverband deutscher Banken The ''Bundesverband deutscher Banken'' (BdB, also branded as Bankenverband and in English as Association of German Banks) is the representative body of profit-oriented banks in Germany and a key lobby group for Germany's financial sector. The Bd ...

''.

CashPool

The bank is a member of the

interbank network An interbank network, also known as an ATM consortium or ATM network, is a computer network that enables ATM cards issued by a financial institution that is a member of the network to be used to perform ATM transactions through ATMs that belo ...

CashPool CashPool is a cooperation of a multitude of smaller or virtual German private banks, in which they mutually waive ATM usage fees for their customers. It is not an interbank network but uses the pre-existing German ATM or Maestro/ Cirrus netwo ...

. For example, customers can withdraw cash from their own account at no charge at more than 2,000 ATMs nationwide.

Technologie

The ''Steyler Bank GmbH'' is affiliated with the cooperative

data center A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...

of ''Atruvia AG'' in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

and uses its software agree21 as its core banking system.

References

External links

Steyler Bank
Official Website {{coord, 50.774312, 7.181546, region:DE-NW_type:landmark, display=title Banks of Germany Catholic Church and finance Private banks 1964 establishments in West Germany German companies established in 1964 Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia