Objectives and Achievements

Our business activities are closely linked to the real economy; around 60 per cent of our total balance sheet total stems from customer transactions.

• Together with our subsidiaries and WIBank, we structure financing for projects in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies, including in accordance with KfW funding criteria.
• In collaboration with the savings banks, we support small and medium-sized enterprises and local authorities in implementing their renewable energy projects. To this end, we offer a wide range of financing solutions, for example for solar and wind power plants.
• In the market for ESG-linked loans, we advise on and structure loans whose terms are linked to defined ESG metrics as set out in the relevant product documentation or frameworks (e.g. ratings or performance indicators). This creates an additional incentive for clients to act in a more sustainable manner, which we are keen to support.
• The latest addition to our range is the Sustainable Guarantee Facility, a guarantee credit line with a sustainability component as defined in the product documentation. The scope and criteria of these financing arrangements are explained in our product documentation and in the sustainability report.

As a capital markets division, we bring issuers and investors together. In this way, we facilitate the efficient allocation of capital and promote investment in the economy and drivers of innovation. As a leading provider of promissory note loans for businesses and the public sector, we have developed a wide range of sustainability-linked products and successfully placed them with an international investor base.

• As a provider of promissory note loans for corporates and the public sector, we have already successfully placed financing with an international investor base that complies with the Green Loan Principles of the LMA Loan Market Association or whose terms are linked to sustainability metrics.
• From structuring to placement: In collaboration with our Sustainable Finance Advisory team, we also offer bespoke solutions and comprehensive transaction support in this segment.
• Through our support in the syndication of bonds that comply with the ICMA Green Bond Principles or Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles, we have already established ourselves amongst an international group of issuers and aim to further expand this expertise.

As a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), Helaba Invest bases its asset management on the principles of responsible investment defined therein. As part of its fiduciary responsibility, it aligns regulatory sustainability requirements with the financial objectives and risk parameters of its institutional investors, and takes environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into account in its analysis and investment decisions. The binding framework for this is the Sustainable Investment Framework (SIF), which sets out ESG criteria for the investment process as well as the systematic management of sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

All public funds managed directly by Helaba Invest in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) meet defined minimum ESG standards. On this basis, institutional investors can incorporate environmental and social factors into their investment decisions in a structured and transparent manner, including through the exclusion of selected economic activities in certain sectors in accordance with Helaba Invest’s Sustainable Investment Framework.

Through active ownership, Helaba Invest aims to specifically advance sustainability issues through constructive dialogue with companies and to address sustainability-related challenges at an early stage.

In addition to its established eReporting service, Helaba Invest offers its clients its own sustainability reporting service. This comprises five reports and thus provides comprehensive coverage of investments relating to ESG:

•  ESG Score
• ESG rating
• ESG controversies
• Business Involvement Screening Research (BISR)
• ESG Carbon

Within the Helaba Group, retail customers are primarily served by the savings banks. Financial inclusion is a key component of their public mandate: people from all sections of society should be supported in saving and building wealth.

Two examples:

• Frankfurter Sparkasse offers various types of basic accounts, with the aim of making banking services accessible in particular to socially disadvantaged and economically vulnerable sections of the population.
• The Landesbausparkasse (LBS) Hessen-Thüringen helps homeowners to renovate their properties to make them more energy-efficient.

GWH Immobilien Holding GmbH (GWH) lets and manages around 50,000 flats:

• It provides housing for a wide range of people and carries out energy-efficiency refurbishments and the switch to renewable energy sources in order to reduce energy consumption and the associated emissions from its buildings.
• In addition, GWH provides premises for social purposes such as youth support, sets up social drop-in centres in housing estates and employs social workers.
• The scope and results of these measures are documented in GWH’s sustainability reports.
• Our subsidiary OFB Projektentwicklung GmbH (OFB), which is responsible for large-scale property developments, also takes sustainability aspects into account in its business activities:
• From the planning stage right through to the completion of its projects, OFB takes environmental and social criteria into account in its planning and development processes.
• Since 2016, 100 per cent of the 31 OFB projects completed have been certified to DGNB or LEED standards. Of these, 24 projects achieved Gold level and 7 projects achieved Platinum level.
• Environmental and social criteria are also factored into the assessment of property financing.

The Hessen Economic and Infrastructure Bank (WIBank) is the state’s central development agency. On behalf of the State of Hessen, it supports local authorities, businesses and private individuals in the areas of economic development, social services and environmental and climate protection, in accordance with the relevant funding programmes. 

• Housing & Home Ownership: In addition to funding social rental housing, energy-efficient refurbishments, energy-efficient new-builds and private photovoltaic systems, WIBank also administers the ‘Hessengeld’ scheme on behalf of the State of Hesse. This scheme supports home ownership by reimbursing the land transfer tax incurred on the first-time purchase of a home for personal use.
• Infrastructure & Energy Transition: In addition to the planned capital strengthening of Hessian municipal utilities with up to €1 billion in subordinated capital for the local heating and energy transition, WIBank coordinates federal and state funds for local authority climate protection investments, the modernisation of hospitals in Hesse, and the ‘Digital Pact for Schools’ to provide educational institutions with digital equipment.
• SME financing: Low-interest loans help to safeguard jobs and strengthen the innovative capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Structural change: WIBank supports local authorities, businesses and private individuals in managing transformation processes, for example in the field of digitalisation. In addition, the HessenFonds supports funding projects for businesses facing particular challenges as a result of the current transformation processes.
• European Structural Funds: On behalf of the State of Hesse, WIBank manages the European Structural and Investment Funds (ERDF, ESF+ and EAFRD). In doing so, it specifically strengthens regional innovation, employment and the sustainable development of rural areas.