GEFA Bank

German finance company

GEFA Bank GmbH

Industry	Bank
Founded	1949
Headquarters	Wuppertal
Key people	Guido Zoeller (Chairman) Albrecht Haase (Management Spokesman) Martin Dornseiffer (Managing Director) Frederik Linthout (Managing Director)
Total assets	€7.434 Mio. (2018)^[1]
Number of employees	673 (2018)^[1]
Parent	Société Générale
Website	www.gefa.de

The GEFA Bank GmbH is a financial services provider specialising in independent manufacturer sales and investment financing of mobile assets. The company, founded in 1949 as subsidiary of the Deutsche Bank,^[2] and is based in Wuppertal^[3] headquarters at the Robert-Daum-Platz. It employs over 500 personnel in seven branches nationwide.

Since 2001 the GEFA has belonged to the major international bank Société Générale and sells its products under the umbrella brand Société Générale Equipment Finance. Société Générale Equipment Finance is represented in 19 European countries as well as Brazil, China and the USA with more than 100 branches.^[4]

On May 23, 2016 the GEFA Gesellschaft für Absatzfinanzierung mbH and the GEFA-Leasing GmbH merged to form the GEFA Bank GmbH.^[5] At the end of 2019, all branches including the registered commercial branch in Berlin, were closed.

Products and services

In the area of investment funding the GEFA offers mostly middle-class clients the following products:^[6]

Investment credits
Finance lease
Operating lease
Rent-to-own
Truck-Trailer-Rent (via subsidiary PEMA GmbH)
VAT-funding
Full-Service-Vehicle-Lease
Insurance
Loyalty card^[3]

Additionally, the GEFA supports manufacturers and dealers, both domestically and internationally via the SG Equipment Finance Network with the following financing solutions:

Sales credits
Sales and distribution lease
Purchase funding
Rent-park funding
Rent
Refinancing
Insurances

In 2012 the GEFA picked up the deposit business with private customers and in 2014 with trade customers.^[3]

Funded products

Funding in the form of loans is offered by GEFA for products within the areas of transport (e.g. trucks, buses, business jets, riverboats, agricultural machinery), industrial goods (e.g. construction machinery, printing machines, machines tools) and high tech (e.g. hardware and software, office equipment, biomedical technology).

In 2015 the organisation generated a new business volume of €1,899 million, with €1,203 million in the transport sector, €435 million in the industrial goods sector and €261 million in the high tech sector.

Deposit guarantee

The GEFA is subject to the legal deposit guarantee and is a member of the deposit protection fund of the Bundesverband deutscher Banken e.V.^[7]

Technology

The brand GEFA Bank is affiliated to the cooperative data center of Fiducia IT AG in Karlsruhe and uses their agree21 banking software for IT operations.^[3] In addition an extensive and longstanding partnership exists with the Paderborn company S&N.

References

^ ^a ^b "Geschäftsbericht 2018". gefa-bank.de. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
^ "Über die GEFA Bank". GEFA BANK. 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Geschichte und Entwicklung der GEFA Bank". RATGEBER-VERGLEICH. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
^ "Flächendeckend in Deutschland vertreten". GEFA BANK. Retrieved 12 February 2018.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Neue Firmierung Neuer Markenname". GEFA BANK. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
^ "GEFA Imagebroschüre". GEFA BANK. Archived from the original on 15 March 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
^ "Einlagensicherung". GEFA BANK. Retrieved 12 February 2018.