The KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH is a German commercial bank that is the wholly owned subsidiary of German KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau; lit. 'credit institute for reconstruction') that focuses on development financing.^[3] Since 1 January 2008 it has been a legally independent bank governed by the German Banking Act. Its work focuses on international project and export financing.^[4] The bank's headquarter is located in Frankfurt, where the KfW IPEX-Bank uses the Westarkade, which was completed in 2011.^[5]

The KfW, founded in 1948,^[1] used the instruments of export and project financing (E&P) within its business model quite early on. In 1950 the KfW was given this task.^[6] This branch of their business became increasingly important in the 1980s and 1990s and, not least because of this, attracted the attention of the competition authorities of the European Union, who regarded the Bank's activities as a German development bank in the area of E&P as non-competitive. This is mainly because this business activity did not take place under market conditions within the protected area of a development bank secured by the German state and thus created an inadmissible competitive advantage.

The outsourcing of the KfW's international project and export financing goes back to an agreement between Germany and the European Commission on the orientation of legally independent development institutions in Germany.

Under the terms of the agreement, the KfW may use the refinancing benefits in the form of federal guarantees only for its original promotional activities as defined in a list of tasks. All other activities were, according to the agreement, spun off until the beginning of 2008 into a privately organized credit institution, which operates under the competitive conditions of the market. On August 15, 2003, the Deutscher Bundestag implemented this agreement in the Förderbankenneustrukturierungsgesetz (Development Bank Restructuring Act).^[7]

As of January 1, 2004, the brand KfW IPEX-Bank (IPEX stands for International Project and Exportfinanzing) was constituted within the framework of a four-year transitional phase (the so-called bank-in-the-bank phase).^[8] On 1 January 2008, it was spun off in the legal form of a Limited liability company as a company and is subject to full tax liability and in particular the banking supervision, which does not apply to the parent company, the KfW.^[3][9]

In 2014, KfW successfully lobbied for the KfW IPEX-Bank to remain under national supervision on the grounds that its parent group is in the ownership of the German government; the bank had originally been on a list of 24 German lenders that were among 128 banks across the eurozone deemed significant enough to be supervised directly by the European Central Bank.^[10][11]