Domestic promotion in 2019

• Energy efficiency is also a key driver in new construction and rehabilitation of residential buildings. Demand remains high and was met with EUR 11.2 billion in 2019 (370,000 homes) in the energy efficiency & renewables priority area. At EUR 20.6 billion, the Private Clients segment exceeded the prior-year level (EUR 19.1 billion).
• Promotion of EUR 0.9 billion was awarded for the energy transition at municipal level, for example via neighbourhood concepts. Grants (EUR 120 million) were committed for the first time to the new promotional approach “Smart Cities model projects”, which tests the opportunities presented by digitalisation for intelligent and liveable cities and municipalities. Business volume for municipal & social infrastructure at almost EUR 3.9 billion exceeded that of the previous year (EUR 3.5 billion).
• SME demand for the Global Loans Leasing programme amounted to EUR 1.5 billion (previous year: EUR 1.5 billion). The commitments will go to financing investments such as the vehicle fleet of a skilled craft business or new production facilities for manufacturing.
• Over 100,000 people were supported in their vocational and further training again in 2019. Start-up activities also received a boost, with more than 15,000 individuals helped to start their own business
• Different programmes are aimed at different promotional objectives. Find out more (content available in German only)

The persistent low interest rate environment presented a challenge for KfW and its promotional approach in 2019. KfW also decided in mid-year to gradually offer its financing partners negative interest rates in order to be able to provide promotional impetus through interest rate benefits in the future as well. Undertaking such steps ensures that the bank passes on its refinancing advantage.

The negative interest rates are passed on to our on-lending financing partners. As the banks fully pass on this refinancing advantage to their customers, this makes our promotional loans more attractive, even if the nominal rate for the final borrower initially remains positive.

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In order to also address our promotional mandate in times of major upheavals in the financing business, we have a presence where customers seek information – also outside our own channels, such as on a cooperation platform.

• The start-up platform launched in 2018 in collaboration with the BMWi, offering both financing and advice, saw dynamic development: 90% more visitors per month, 90% more registrations per month, 31% more partners since the start of the year (information as of 12/2019 compared with 01/2019)
• New Instagram account on “domestic promotional business” (kfw.foerderung)

KfW is reacting to the dynamic change in market standards, customer needs and partners by systematically continuing its digitalisation process. In so doing, it is creating the basis for continued efficient and customer-oriented promotion.

• Tools such as the ‘energy expert finder’ and the new ‘KfW benefit calculator’ offer support in the area of domestic promotion. The bank improved forms and accessibility. Agile teams are working continuously to optimise our website.
• Our chatbot introduced for the first subject areas at the end of 2019 now offers our customers round-the-clock use of a contemporary digital dialogue tool.
• KfW achieved a total of 16.1 million visits to its domestic promotion web pages in 2019 (up 22% on 2018). We also tallied an additional 2.2 million visits to our KfW content on our financing partners’ websites (up 15% on 2018).

We continued to record heavy use of our infocenter in addition to our digital offering. Around one million enquiries on more than 45 products were processed in 2019. Over 90% of customers were satisfied with the responses we provided, praising our friendliness and indicating they would recommend KfW.