Umweltbank

The bank was founded in 1994 by Horst P. Popp. In early 1997, it started business operations with the registration of a full banking license in the commercial register. In mid-2001, it went public. Since its foundation, the bank has grown steadily.

The bank publishes a loan portfolio every year, which can be used to see what kind of projects have been financed. The loan portfolio in 2017 was composed as follows: 35.9 percent solar loans, 35.2 percent ecological building financing, 25.2 percent wind and hydro projects, and 3.7 percent biomass projects, organic farming and other projects.

The total volume of the projects funded, which consisted of credit draws and open loan commitments, amounted to €2,710 billion (as of December 2017). The ratio of credit volume to customer deposits (referred to by the bank as the environmental guarantee coverage ratio) was around 114 percent in 2017 (as of December 2017).

Overall, carbon dioxide (CO2) savings were achieved in 2017 from the more than 22,500 subsidized loan projects amounting to 538,827 t CO2.

The bank is a member of the statutory deposit insurance, but does not belong to a deposit guarantee fund; thus deposits up to 100,000 euros are protected in full.

Criticism

The magazine Finanztest reported that some investors were disappointed with the banking house. The bank had offered and sold them risky investments in wind farms with false advertising statements. Furthermore, it was reported that long-term investments in wind farms were recommended as secure retirement provision. The losses sustained by investors in numerous closed-end funds distributed by the Umweltbank have led to allegations that the Umweltbank has deliberately misled investors about the risks of wind funds. The magazine Der Spiegel reported in early 2014 that many wind power projects, which attracted savers with the promise of high returns, were running poorly. One example was the report of a wind farm participation, which the Umweltbank had advertised as an ideal supplementary pension, but in which after a short time the prospective remittances did not occur. After a lawsuit filed by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband against the Umweltbank, the bank was defeated at the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court. The verdict was final. In the opinion of the court, the bank was not allowed to point out the advantages (high profit participation interest) without also presenting the risks accordingly.

At the beginning of 2015, the Umweltbank was criticized for failing to inform on its homepage that the board had no budget discharge for 2013.

According to a report by Die Tageszeitung from Berlin, the Umweltbank is said to have refused a paid student his leave and continued salary in the event of sickness. The Umweltbank violated thereby valid employment law. According to the board, the bank has failed to do so due to an inappropriate administrative burden, which arises as part of a flexible working model. A student should have been dismissed without warning or a reason due to a submitted vacation request. However, according to the CEO Horst Popp this model is no longer offered for reasons of legal certainty. A judicial dispute between the bank and the student is pending.

After persistent criticism, the founder of the bank and CEO Popp resigned as a member of the executive board on April 30, 2015. According to a report by the Handelsblatt he was accused of violating the German Stock Corporation Act during the discharge of the Management Board for the 2013 financial year and of insufficiently pointing at the existing risks in the distribution of wind farm funds and profit participation certificates. At the annual general meeting on 15 June 2015, the Umweltbank was heavily criticized by investor representatives for a lack of transparency and decisions in an autocratic manner. Due to a computer error, the meeting had to be closed without result.