The story
Background
The history of NRW.Bank began in 2001 with the Verständigung I agreement, in which the EU Commission and the German government decided to phase out state liability guarantees for German Landesbanken and savings banks by 2005 for competition law reasons, while preserving their public-law status. A subsequent agreement, Verständigung II, signed on 1 March 2002, introduced special regulations for legally independent promotional banks engaged in market-neutral promotional and structural development activities.
As a result, Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale was split into the privately operated WestLB AG and the publicly owned Landesbank NRW, the predecessor of what later became NRW.Bank.
Creation of NRW.Bank and expansion of promotional programmes
On 31 March 2004, the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament passed the law restructuring Landesbank NRW into the development bank for North Rhine-Westphalia. This officially granted the bank promotional bank status, ensuring the continued application of institutional liability and guarantor liability. The bank was also renamed NRW.Bank, under which it has operated ever since. Its headquarters have since been located in Münster and Düsseldorf.
From 2005, NRW.Bank expanded its products, developing additional promotional programmes for start-ups, SMEs, and municipalities. Following Cyclone Kyrill in 2007, it introduced emergency loans for the first time. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, the bank launched a telephone information service to help businesses select suitable promotional offerings. In autumn 2009, NRW.Bank moved into a new building in Münster.
In January 2010, the Housing Promotion Agency of North Rhine-Westphalia (Wohnungsbauförderungsanstalt Nordrhein-Westfalen, Wfa) was integrated into NRW.Bank as its housing promotion division. The bank assumed all tasks and responsibilities of the Wfa, inheriting its rights and obligations. The Wfa's assets remained with NRW.Bank and became part of its share capital.
In 2015, NRW.Bank was included in a European Central Bank list of European institutions and national agencies whose bonds would be eligible for the ECB to buy alongside sovereign debt.
On 1 January 2017, NRW.Bank, together with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, launched the NRW.Bank.Gute Schule 2020 funding programme. Under this scheme, municipalities received €500 million annually over four years for school renovation, modernisation, and digitalisation projects. The state covered all repayment and interest costs, making the programme cost-free for municipalities.
In 2019, NRW.Bank moved into an office location in the former WestLB headquarters in Düsseldorf. In 2024, construction work began on a new building at the site of the former Ministry of the Interior in Düsseldorf.
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Crisis aid and new developments
Since 2020, the bank has increasingly provided support measures for crisis situations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it offered funding primarily for start-ups, businesses, and municipalities. Following the 2021 European floods, NRW.Bank introduced promotional programmes to help with flood damage recovery.
From Wikipedia’s article on NRW.Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5