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Bank für Kirche und Diakonie - KD-Bank
Founded in 1925, Bank für Kirche und Diakonie — KD-Bank — serves the Protestant Church and its affiliated social-welfare organizations in Germany.
Bank für Kirche und Diakonie - KD-Bank
Founded in 1925, Bank für Kirche und Diakonie — KD-Bank — serves the Protestant Church and its affiliated social-welfare organizations in Germany. The cooperative bank's shareholders and clients are overwhelmingly institutions and individuals linked to the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and Diakonie Deutschland. Its lending book is built around mission-aligned assets: church renovations, kindergarten facilities, retirement homes, and social-infrastructure projects that public or purely commercial banks often underweight. The bank's deployment is concentrated in real estate and project finance, with a portfolio that spans church-owned residential developments, diaconal healthcare facilities, and community infrastructure. It also provides working-capital lines and deposit services to parishes and charitable entities. KD-Bank has developed a proprietary ethical-sustainability filter that screens all capital-markets investments, excluding issuers involved in armaments, nuclear energy, gambling, or forced/child labor. The bank participates in syndicated loans alongside other German cooperative and church-linked financial institutions, maintaining a domestic geographic focus with primary activity in North Rhine-Westphalia and across other German federal states. KD-Bank marked 100 years of operations in 2025, publishing its annual report for the fiscal year on May 20, 2026 (per the firm). The bank operates a registered foundation, KD-Bank-Stiftung, which provides grants to church and diaconal projects. Its public-facing tools include the 'KD-onlineSpende' donation portal, connecting donors with vetted charitable causes. A subsidiary magazine, 'Neue Perspektiven,' and a sustainability portal communicate its activities to members. Structurally, KD-Bank functions as a cooperative lender owned by its clients, a governance model that binds its investment decisions directly to the needs of church and welfare entities. This mutual-ownership structure sets it apart from investor-owned banks, reinforcing a credit-first mandate where dividend maximization is secondary to the durability of its borrower institutions.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
1925
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Germany
City
Dortmund
Corporate office
Dortmund, Germany
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Bank für Kirche und Diakonie — KD-Bank?
KD-Bank is organized as a registered cooperative (eingetragene Genossenschaft, eG). Its owners are the member institutions and individuals principally drawn from the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Diakonie social-welfare network. This cooperative structure means borrowers, depositors, and shareholders overlap significantly, aligning governance with the mission of sustaining church and diaconal infrastructure.
What asset classes does KD-Bank deploy into?
The bank primarily provides direct loans for church construction, social housing, hospitals, elder-care facilities, and renewable-energy installations on ecclesiastical property. On the securities side, it applies an ethical-sustainability filter to its liquid portfolio and invests via funds with a sustainability mandate, avoiding sectors such as armaments, nuclear energy, gambling, and forced-labor-linked industries.
How is KD-Bank related to the Evangelical Church in Germany?
KD-Bank was created specifically to serve the financial needs of Protestant church bodies and their charitable affiliates. It is not formally managed by any church synod, but its client base and cooperative membership consist predominantly of parishes, church districts, and Diakonie organizations, creating a de facto alignment between the bank's lending priorities and the capital needs of the German Protestant social sector.
Does KD-Bank take retail deposits?
Yes, KD-Bank provides deposit accounts, payment services, and private banking to individuals, particularly employees of church and diaconal institutions and members of affiliated cooperatives. Its product suite includes giro accounts, construction financing, and consumer loans through a standard cooperative-banking platform shared with the broader Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken network.
What philanthropic structures does KD-Bank maintain?
The bank operates the KD-Bank-Stiftung, a grant-making foundation that funds church and diaconal projects. Separately, the bank hosts the 'KD-onlineSpende' portal, which enables donors to contribute directly to a curated set of charitable organizations, reflecting its intermediary role in mobilizing capital for social purposes beyond its own balance sheet.
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