KfW strengthens areas dedicated to communication and strategic mandated transactions

• Strengthening the General Secretariat and Group Communications Department in the course of developing into a digital transformation and promotional bank
• General Secretariat department put on a broader base for increasing tasks in the area of special business
• Verena Köttker takes over management of the newly created Group Communications Department on 15 November

KfW continues to forge ahead with its strategic repositioning as a digital transformation and promotional bank and is aligning its organisational structure to meet increased requirements resulting from increasing direct business mandates from the German Federal Government and changed tasks in corporate communication.

As of 1 December 2022, the KfW Executive Board will structurally strengthen the General Secretariat department and further develop it into a competence centre for mandated transactions and strategic equity investment on behalf of the German Federal Government. The General Secretariat, headed by Dr Lutz-Christian Funke, is responsible for managing KfW’s investments, matters related to corporate supervision and relationships with governments, parliaments and associations throughout Germany and abroad. In the course of the sharp increase in the importance of mandated transactions by the Federal Government to secure the energy supply in Germany as well as investments on behalf of the state, the necessary competencies and structures will be bundled and expanded in this area in the future.

At the same time, corporate communication, previously affiliated with the General Secretariat, will be set up as a separate Group Communications Department with a direct reporting line to CEO Stefan Wintels. On 15 November, Verena Köttker will take over the management of the newly created department, which covers all external and internal communication. She has many years of wide-ranging experience in journalism and corporate communication in a prominent position, considerable expertise in the areas of sustainability and digitalisation, as well as an extensive network in the political sphere. By strengthening the Group Communications Department both structurally and with regard to personnel in that way, KfW is taking account of its significantly increased visibility and the associated more complex requirements, which it faces in-house and in contact with the target groups of the financial market, business, private consumers and politics.

Stefan Wintels, Chief Executive Officer of KfW, stated that “In the decade ahead of us, KfW’s main task is to support the transformation to a sustainable society and to strengthen Germany as a location for industry and technology. We have also set ourselves an ambitious transformation agenda under the name KfWplus in order to become the digital transformation and promotional bank in the coming years. Internal and external communication is of crucial importance in this regard. In addition, we need to expand our expertise and ability to deliver in the area of strategic equity investments and mandated transactions of the Federal Government. We have therefore chosen to focus the General Secretariat department and to establish Group Communications as a separate department under new management. I look forward to working with Verena Köttker. At the same time, I would like to thank Dr Michael Helbig, KfW’s long-standing Head of Corporate Communications and Public Relations Officer, who will transfer his functions to the newly established department. For many years, he successfully managed KfW’s internal and external communication and played a major role in the sustained positive public perception of KfW.”