The Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation is a joint organism of the Savings Banks Finance Group in Germany. It is essentially funded by interest returns from the invested capital and by donations from the member institutes of the Savings Banks Finance Group. The implementation of the international projects is sponsored, among others, by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the KfW Banking Group, the EU and the World Bank.
The mandate of the Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation is to advise and to assist the financial sector of central and east European countries, and of developing and transforming countries during the transformation processes into systems of market economy and in implementing structural and stabilising reforms. Consultancy mainly means accompanying the process of the institutional development of the partners, mainly savings banks or similar. It is intended to improve the capacity of the partner institutes to offer comprehensive and adequate financial service to their clients, in particular the local people as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (SME).