The state-owned promotional bank KfW considers itself well equipped for the challenges of the future in a difficult economic environment. "The environment was and is challenging. The polycrisis will remain," said KfW CEO Stefan Wintels on Friday at the presentation of the 2022 balance sheet. "Despite the ongoing crisis environment, KfW is financially very well positioned to fulfil its tasks as a transformation and promotional bank."

2022 was an exceptional year

Last year, the profit of the banking group fell to 1.37 billion euros. In the strong previous year, which was characterised by non-recurring effects, KfW had generated a consolidated profit of just over EUR 2.2 billion. "In the exceptional year 2022, despite all the special tasks as a result of the Ukraine war, we recorded a pleasing result at the level of the pre-crisis years," said Wintels. It is about the average level of the last five years and "absolutely within the corridor of our expectations." The banking group is generally planning a profit of around one billion euros annually. There is no intention of presenting one record result after another, said CFO Bernd Loewen.

In view of the uncertain economic situation, KfW set aside EUR 122 million for possible loan defaults. The Institute estimated the provision for defaulted commitments in Russia and Ukraine at a very low double-digit million amount.

Last year, the billions decided by the federal government to secure the energy supply and to relieve households and companies caused the institute's funding volume to shoot up. With a total of 166.9 billion euros, the record of the corona year 2020 (135.3 billion euros) was clearly exceeded, as the banking group had already announced. In 2021, the total amount of funding in Germany and abroad was 107 billion euros.