The rescue for many of the Hessian entrepreneur comes from Offenbach, from a building called the omega house. There, at the Kaiserlei-roundabout, sits an Institution that has for thousands of freelancers, Start-ups and SMEs to the last rescue. 167 million euros in loans, the state economic and infrastructure Bank Hessen, short-Wibank, enough in the past weeks to you, to conditions that were in many of the private banks are probably the hardly conceivable: immediate payment, redemption free years and interest rates of 0.75 and 1 per cent is less than Inflation. And, in certain cases, the Wibank does not even a part of the repayment. 5400 companies have taken advantage of this assistance so far, especially from the Rhine-Main area and are mainly of restaurateurs and retailers. Every sixth request came from Frankfurt.
Falk Heunemann
business editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
F. A. Z.
Now, the support of the regional economy is one of the orders of the Wibank, which is sort of the KfW for the state of Hesse. What is remarkable, however, is less that it was at all the aid, but as quickly from the 26. March – a week after the first business and four days of closing in accordance with the nationally prescribed contact restrictions could apply for Hessian companies in the Wibank Liquidity support of up to 200,000 Euro. Only a week later, the followed directly loan up to 35 000 Euro. Normally, says Wibank-chief Gottfried Mild, take it for months, until the funding Bank to bring a new product through the bodies and to the market. “But in a crisis, you realize what a house is capable of.”
the Wibank, which currently employs around 400 employees, is a highly political Institution. The development Bank of the country, which is organizationally a part of the Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, was founded eleven years ago by the merger of the second of other funding facilities, the Bank for infrastructure that primarily supported the construction of housing, and the investment Bank, for example, venture capital for business. The leading trio of Wibank, which in addition to Mild yet Michael reck hard and, most recently, Claudia Hillenherms belong to, has to follow the guidelines of the state government. In Wibank-Committee, the Supreme body of the Bank, the Minister of economic Affairs, the Minister of Finance and two CDU deputies to the guidelines. Also Wibank, managing Director of the Mild is originally from the policy. The Griesheim and son of the former Hessian Minister of the interior, was previously a member of the Landtag, and CDU group Vice -, but had completed an apprenticeship as a Bank clerk, and for many years in the financial industry worked. “The development Bank was, for me, the ideal interface, in my, until then, exercised professions in politics and banking,” he says today.
there was in any other German state
the policies of the country is engaged at all by means of a development Bank in the economy, the market for economists is not a contradiction to the pure doctrine. “We will not intervene where the market works.” So there had been the direct Liquidity support, in the Corona-crisis, because the banks, the credit business with small businesses has become too tedious, both due to high duties imposed by the Supervisory, as well as because of the low interest rates. As state support for non-viable firms he sees the. “It is in the interest of all, when there are many of the market continues to be a possible participant.”
the Wibank has won in recent years greatly in importance and size. After the Lehman crisis of 2008/09, they accounted for the economic aid of the country for the local authorities, a package of 1.7 billion euros. It was in this Form in any other state – with no other Region so much of the crisis was affected as the financial centre of Frankfurt. Only a few years later, the so-called bailout of the country followed on the part of the debt of the municipalities, which provided for repayment assistance in the amount of EUR 2.8 billion and interest-rate subsidies of 400 million euros.
And now there is not only the direct loans for thousands of companies, but also guarantees and Corona-AIDS for hospitals, clubs, youth hostels, cultural institutions and operators. “This mass of business is for us a whole new experience,” says Milde.Criticism there is, as yet, only in the Small. Individual entrepreneurs not complained that the direct loans, go to the company, but to people who are then also liable personally. The verkompliziere the situation in the case of Establishments with multiple owners, because who of them should take a direct loan on? Wibank defended this method is that it is much faster than an audit of the company. In the crisis, it had arrived, especially at speed, in order to prevent bankruptcies.
