Established in 1974, GLS Bank is the first social-ecological bank in Germany.
The company uniquely finances social and ecological projects, with a focus on
cultural, social and ecological initiatives, initiated by people rather than
anonymous interests seeking capital or maximum profit. GLS Bank CEO,
Mr. Thomas Jorberg, explains why the bank continues to so well at a time when
it seems like the whole world has lost faith in the financial industry. “We believe
in transparency, in explaining to our clients what we’re investing their money
in. We’re all about sustainability, not just socially and ecologically, but also
economically. GLS Bank isn’t just a ‘green’ bank, it’s also a bank that generates
value for its investors, whether they are private or institutional.”
 GLS stands for ‘Community Bank
for Loans and Gifts’. The bank has
been around since the mid 1970s. Its
current CEO, Mr. Jorberg, got his first
job at GLS Bank as a first apprentice
in 1977. He then went on to study
business and economics and rejoined
the bank, where he was appointed
CEO in 2000. “From the beginning,
GLS Bank has had the philosophy
of providing full transparency for
its clients. Over the years we have
become more sophisticated, and have
developed systems to help make our
business even more transparent. We’ve
become an expert in sociocultural and
ecological projects. A milestone in our
company history was the acquisition
of Ökobank, in 2003. Today we’re no longer a niche bank; we’ve
expanded our product portfolio and
have grown our number of clients.”
The bank’s product offerings currently
include current accounts, GLS Savings
Accounts, GLS Savings Certificates,
GLS Future Accounts. Term-Deposits,
and Bank Membership.
Mr. Jorberg again emphasises that
GLS Bank operates with transparency:
all the credit projects, together with
information on the development of
the bank itself, is published in the
customer magazine Bankspiegel. The
bank transfers depositors’ money as
loans to independent schools and
kindergartens, ecological farms, curativeand
socialtherapeutic initiatives, projects
for the unemployed, health food stores
and communal living projects, as well
as commercial projects. “Around half
of the projects we invest in are in
the socio-cultural space,” adds Mr.
Jorberg. “The remaining half are
divided between sustainable home
construction projects and renewable
energy.” The bank generally seeks
to cooperate with initiatives and
individuals that follow social,
ecological and cultural goals. In these
endeavours, they seek to explore
new, ethical-based forms of banking
that put the care for the well-being of future generations into the forefront.
The bank holds annual meetings that
focus on certain social or ecological
topics and invite the general public
to learn more about how to make a
difference through depositing and
investing their money.
 In its international outreach, GLS
Bank holds contacts to other ethical
and ecological banks throughout
Europe, for example the Ekobanken
of Sweden. In Germany, the bank
has its headoffice in Bochum and
has established branches in Berlin,
München, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Freiburg
and Hamburg. “Clients who need
personal advice need to be able to visit
a branch office,” Mr. Jorberg comments.
“We also operate a customer support
centre at our headquarters to additionally
serve our 65,000 clients over
the telephone. We are thinking about
expanding into Austria, but for now the
focus is on our domestic market.”
Despite the crisis on the international
finance markets, GLS Bank grew
by 27,4% in 2008, continuing its
successful progress. The company also
announced its second acquisition,
that of IntegraBank, which similar to
GLS Bank is organised on a mutual
and cooperative basis, and subscribes
to sustainable and fair economics.
It is founded on Catholic social
doctrines, and offers its 1,600 clients
all normal banking facilities, from giro
accounts through savings accounts
and insurance brokering to asset
management. IntegraBank’s main
office in Munich has been retained by
GLS Bank, and should strengthen the
bank’s presence in South Germany.
Mr. Jorberg is obviously pleased that
GLS Bank manages to do so well in extremely adverse market conditions,
but he’s not surprised about it. “We
have been promoting the idea of
transparency, which many finance
experts are now calling for, for over
30 years. For that reason we’ve
never invested in abstract, paper
investments, and we’re reaping the
benefits from that now. So it’s no
surprise that an increasing number of people turn to us as a reliable
banking alternative.”
 On that note Mr. Jorberg emphasises
that working with GLS Bank is not
just a responsible decision, it’s also a
business decision. “We deliver actual
economic benefits too.” Underscoring
his words, GLS Bank this year received
a Portfolio Institutionell Award as best sustainable development investor’.
The Portfolio Institutionell jury includes
business and financial consultants
as well as university professors, who
judge on several factors determining
which bank is the best choice in the
sustainable development space for
institutional investors. “To us the award
underscores that we’re appreciated not
only for our environmental and social
responsibility, but also for actually
delivering return on investment to
institutional investors.”
Mr. Jorberg believes that GLS Bank will
continue to grow. “We will continue
to invest in economically stable and
ecologically sound sectors of industry;
we just decided to participate in
an ecological agriculture project. We
also want to expand our offering
for institutional investors. I estimate
that our growth rate this year will
be 20%.”
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