KfW and L-Bank agree on pilot partnership to advance digital funding approval

• L-Bank to integrate commercial promotion products into KfW platform
• Regular business banks and customers benefit from speed and transparency
• Aim is to expand and open up platform to other funding bodies

KfW and L-Bank, the promotional institution of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, have agreed to incorporate L-Bank's commercial promotional products into KfW's online promotional funding platform "On-Lending Online 2.0 (BDO 2.0)". As part of a pilot partnership, the funding platform is also due to undergo further development at the same time so that it can be used by other German states' promotional institutions once the work is complete.

With its sales and service platform "BDO 2.0", KfW has developed a technical basis for providing quick, simple and digital access to promotional funding. Using a completely online process, regular business banks can apply for financing on behalf of their customers, automatically check promotional eligibility, and receive an immediate and binding promotion commitment. Banking advisors and customers benefit from improved transparency and speed. The first digital approval for promotion under a KfW financing programme in the housing sector was issued in May 2014. Over the past year, commercial KfW products have been gradually added to the platform. KfW has already opened the platform up to other funding bodies. For instance, housing loans from L-Bank have been issued digitally on the platform since autumn 2016.

Under the newly agreed pilot partnership with L-Bank, the platform will now be expanded even further. The aim is to create a multi-bank, online ecosystem that connects funding providers, banks, credit unions, savings banks, financial brokers, experts and borrowers and enables them all to cooperate.

With their new pilot partnership, both KfW and L-Bank are moving forward with their digital transformation.

"As a BDO pilot partner, L-Bank's online-banking products for the housing sector have already been available on the platform for a year and the bank has been working successfully with KfW and the central institutions," explains Dr Axel Nawrath, Chief Executive Officer of the L-Bank. "Based on these positive experiences, L-Bank has now decided to incorporate its commercial promotional products into the pilot partnership and complete the journey we started together. In doing so, we continue to build a cost-efficient digital system for accessing our promotional loans for our financing partners in Baden-Württemberg."

"We are delighted that L-Bank wants to work with us to make promotion modern, future-proof and even more customer-friendly," says Dr Ingrid Hengster, the Member of the KfW Executive Board responsible for domestic promotional business. "The further development of the online funding platform is an investment in the future for all partners involved in the promotional business. It will be strategically integrated straight into the partners' digital business models. Thanks to automatic promotion assessment, customers will enjoy better planning reliability while the promotional institutions and their financing partners will benefit from efficient processes."

Further information on the digitalisation of the application and approval process for promotional loans at KfW is available at www.kfw.de/bdo(only in German).