Group supervision and corporate governance

As the parent company, ProCredit Holding is, from a regulatory perspective, also the superordinated company of the group. At a consolidated level, the ProCredit group is supervised by the German financial supervisory authorities (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin and Deutsche Bundesbank) and operates in accordance with German and European regulatory standards. Furthermore, the group adheres to international best banking practices.

ProCredit Holding is responsible for the strategic guidance of the group, for maintaining an adequate level of equity and for ensuring that all reporting, risk management, anti-money laundering and compliance obligations required under German and European banking regulations, and particularly the requirements as defined in Section 25a of the German Banking Act (KWG), are met. Risk management, controlling and compliance systems are in place across the group, in line with BaFin’s Minimum Requirements for Risk Management, commonly referred to as MaRisk.

Management and supervision of ProCredit institutions

Central to the effective governance of the ProCredit group is the relationship between ProCredit Holding and its subsidiaries. A strength of the ProCredit group is its ability, despite having operations in several countries, to implement its business and risk strategies with a very high degree of efficiency and uniformity. All ProCredit banks are independent, licensed and regulated banks. ProCredit holds a controlling stake (typically 100%) in its subsidiaries and is in a position to appoint the majority of the supervisory board members of these subsidiaries.

The management board of each ProCredit bank bears responsibility for the operations in its respective institution. They operate within the tight business and risk management framework set by ProCredit Holding. Our management staff are, as a rule, from the regions in which they work and have graduated from the ProCredit Management Academy; on average, our management staff have been with ProCredit for more than 16 years.