Wed, 09 Aug 2006

Freie Gemeinschaftsbank on steady course

BASLE (NNA) – The Swiss alternative bank Freie Gemeinschaftsbank has continued on a steady course.

At its AGM, the Gemeinschaftsbank, based in Basle, reported a fall in its balance sheet total for 2005 from 173m Swiss francs to 165m Swiss francs. However, more money was moved into the trust business which rose by 10m Swiss francs. Net profit remained steady in comparison to the previous year at approximately 100,000 Swiss francs.

The alternative bank also decided to make available the full range of its services for local customers in Germany. This was not, however, an attempt to start competing with GLS Bank, Markus Jermann, a member of the management team, emphasised.

Located at the meeting point of three countries, Switzerland, Germany and France, it was simply a matter of meeting customer requirements in the region on both sides of the border, Jermann told NNA. The move had been briefly discussed with GLS Bank.

Moves at the AGM to shift the course of the bank towards greater quantitative growth on the grounds that the current policy was too conservative and risk-averse were defeated by a majority of the AGM.  The two candidates who had proposed such a move failed to be elected to the administrative board.

It was argued in response that such a change of policy would have meant that the bank would have been less able to fulfil its task of furthering initiative. “If we adopt a selling approach, the space to give proper advice grows smaller,” Jermann said. More fundamentally, was the bank merely aiming to be more human and social in its approach or was the aim to work at a fundamentally different way of dealing with money based on a spiritual outlook?

However, the policy debate, which was held in a constructive spirit, was to be welcomed and the points made would be taken on board, Jermann added.

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Item: 060809-04EN Date: 9 August 2006

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GLS Bank continues to grow

BOCHUM (NNA) - The GLS Gemeinschaftsbank in Germany has reported continuing good results this year.

In the three years to 2005, the balance sheet total of the Gemeinschaftsbank more than doubled from 280m to 570m euros now. The total business volume of the GLS Group came to 728m euros.

Growth continued as expected at 10-15 percent in the initial months of 2006 as well. At the end of May the bank had equity capital of approx. 34m euros, 14,000 members, 49,740 customers and 181 employees.

Guests at the bank’s AGM earlier this year included Patricia Taterra from the initiative “We are what we do”, Helmy Abouleish, managing director of the Egyptian Sekem Group, Jakob von Uexküll, initiator of the Alternative Nobel Prize and Götz Werner, managing director of one of the major German pharmacy chains, dm-drogerie-markt, and promoter of the “unconditional basic income”.

END/NNA/kra/cva

Item: 060809-03EN Date: 9 August [Date]

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Witten/Herdecke students win award to study microfinance in Central America

WITTEN (NNA) – Three economics students at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany have won the Helmut Bertram Prize supporting academic projects abroad. The prize is awarded by the Helmut und Gisela Bertram Foundation and provides funding of 7000 euros.

Two of the prize winners, Marco Thomas Lietz and Jessica Schicks, intend to study the work of microfinance institutions at the UN in New York and in El Salvador. Micro-finance lenders provide small loans to small business in developing countries, mainly to women, as a form of practical development assistance.

The third prize winner, Anke Strauß will study the interaction of art and entrepreneurial practice, a research field which has so far been largely ignored. She will study agencies and businesses with corresponding experience in four European capitals.

NNA/end/ung/cva

Item: 060809-02EN Date: 9 August 2006

Copyright 2006 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/

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Medical training at Witten-Herdecke University safeguarded

By Cornelie Unger-Leistner

WITTEN (NNA) – The future of the medical training at Witten/Herdecke University, the first private university in Germany, has been safeguarded following devastating criticism last year of the course by the German Science Council. The Science Council advises the German federal and regional governments on, among other things, the performance of universities.

The Council reversed its decision following a thorough review of the course by the university over the last year. In its revised assessment the Science Council acknowledged that the medical course at Witten-Herdecke “is characterised by innovative approaches”. In this context the report quoted among other things the character of the teaching, the early intensive contact of students with patients, the problem-oriented learning and the interlinking of pre-clinical and clinical studies.

As part of its approach, the university has built up close collaboration with a network of hospitals, medical practices and rehabilitation centres in the region, providing for a broad teaching basis.

In its new research concept, entitled “Innovation transfer as the core task of clinical research”, Witten/Herdecke says that basic research in Germany was not being sufficiently tested in clinical studies and that there was therefore a failure to transfer it for the direct benefit of day-to-day patient care.

The initial negative opinion of the advisory body had placed the continuation of the medical course at Witten/Herdecke at risk, with serious implications for the future of the university as a whole. The course offers an innovative training model for doctors in which theory and practice are integrated much more closely than is normally the case.

The university said in a statement that it had used the grace period of one year to improve internal quality management, review research activities and employ additional staff – thus responding to the criticisms of the Science Council.

Following the positive outcome of the second review, university president Wolfgang Glatthaar said the new concept would be speedily implemented. He thanked the region of North Rhine-Westphalia for its constructive support during the difficulties of the last year: “The regional government was extraordinarily constructive in its support of the whole process,” he told journalists.

The implementation of the new model has been made possible by increased funding from North Rhine-Westphalia, which provides support of 3.5m euros per year.

END/nna/ung/cva

Item: 060809-01EN Date: 9 August 2006

Copyright 2006 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/