In brief

The Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Cooperative Financial Network fared well in 2025 despite ongoing weak economic growth in Germany. Profit before taxes came to €11.6 billion. This profit highlights the Cooperative Financial Network’s competitiveness and is based on the continued growth of the customer business.

Net interest income – the Cooperative Financial Network’s largest source of income – rose slightly to €24.5 billion and thereby reaffirmed the high level achieved in the previous year. Net fee and commission income increased more strongly, rising to €9.9 billion. Payments processing and the securities business continued to be the main sources of income. Gains and losses on trading activities improved significantly from a net loss of €643 million to a net gain of €384 million. One of the main reasons for this turnaround was the absence of market-related valuation effects on own issues in the reporting year. Conversely, the net gain under gains and losses on investments returned to a normal level, falling from €930 million to €142 million. There were some reversals of impairment losses but these were significantly lower than in the previous year. The insurance business was of particular note. Encouraging growth in customer business, accompanied by a lower level of claims, resulted in a significant rise in net income from insurance business, which went up by 55.6 percent to €2.5 billion.

The Cooperative Financial Network maintained its loss allowances at a high level of €4.3 billion in 2025. This reflected the continuing rise in corporate and personal insolvencies, which was attributable to the weakness of the economy. Administrative expenses went up moderately by 6.5 percent to €22.2 billion. The increase was chiefly due to higher staff expenses as a result of collectively agreed pay rises and new hires. IT expenses also rose. Net profit after taxes amounted to €7.4 billion. The cost/income ratio increased moderately to 58.3 percent.

The growth of the customer business was also reflected in the balance sheet, with loans and advances to customers rising by 2.9 percent and customer deposits by 2.7 percent. The Cooperative Financial Network’s consolidated total assets thus rose to €1.68 trillion, which was 2.3 percent higher than in the previous year.

The Cooperative Financial Network also continued to strengthen its equity position. Equity rose by almost 5.3 percent to €158.5 billion. The total capital ratio increased by 0.3 percentage points to 17.2 percent. Thanks to this very sound capital adequacy, the Cooperative Financial Network is well equipped for the future – both in terms of risks and expected funding needs. The current ratings awarded by the rating agencies underpin this. The Cooperative Financial Network continues to have a credit rating of AA– from Fitch and of A+ from Standard & Poor’s, in both cases with a stable outlook.