Complaints

Individuals, companies, organisations or other affected parties who believe that they have been or may be negatively affected by a German Financial Cooperation project or programme supported by KfW Development Bank are all able to submit a complaint.

A representative may act on behalf of parties immediately affected if the parties in whose name the complaint is submitted have been identified and evidence of the representative’s authority to do so is provided in the complaint.

• Complaints concerning environmental issues and human rights relating to KfW's business area and its own procurements are handled by KfW Compliance according to the Rules of Procedure(PDF, 70 KB, accessible). Please contact the Compliance Whistleblower system at or the external ombudsperson.
• In case of suspicion of criminal offences (e.g. fraud or corruption) or other violations of law such as the German banking act (KWG), please contact the Compliance Whistleblowing System at or the external ombudsperson.
• Complaints concerning procurement procedures of partners / project-executing agencies of projects financed by KfW.
• Complaints with the objective of gaining an economic or competitive advantage or that are excessive, repetitive (i.e. covering the same aspects of a project), clearly frivolous or malicious in nature.

If KfW Development Bank's Central Complaints Office receives a complaint for which the complaints mechanism is not available, it is forwarded to the responsible unit at KfW.

To ensure impartiality, we have set up a central Complaints Office that is separate from the operating business areas and reports directly to KfW’s Executive Board. The central Complaints Office

• stands for professional and objective coordination of all reported complaints;
• is responsible for forwarding the complaint to a person with the necessary competence to solve the problem in the responsible specialist division;
• monitors compliance with standards for quick and proper processing;
• may order processing by a task force led by the central Complaints Office.

Within 14 business days you will receive a confirmation of receipt from us together with a statement on the expected processing time.

The central Complaints Office will further coordinate the clarification of your request with the involvement of all required departments.

Should we determine that additional information is required for thorough clarification and that processing will take longer as a result, we will inform you accordingly.

We will respond to you in writing about results on your complaint. By email if we have your email address, or by post to the specified address.

Please submit your complaint preferably in writing directly to the central Complaints Office.

• Online: Complaint form
• Email:
• By mail:
  Central Complaints Office
  KfW Development Bank
  Palmengartenstrasse 5-9
  60325 Frankfurt am Main

The following information is needed in order to process your complaint at its best:

• Your name and contact details (mail or email address), including country of residence.
• Proof of authority to represent if filing is done by a representative on behalf of the parties immediately affected, those being clearly identified.
• Identification of the German Financial Cooperation project or programme that is linked to the alleged adverse impact.
• Information regarding the main adverse effects or risks alleged harm, provided in as much detail as possible, and how you are directly affected. If you have any documents you deem relevant, please attach these to your complaint.
• Information what has been done prior to this complaint to address the stated harm. Have you contacted the local complaint mechanism? In case you did not, please explain the reasons.
• Whether you wish that KfW keeps your complaint confidential, including all data and documents transmitted.
• If relevant, provide an indication, which of KfW Develpoment Bank policies has allegedly been breached.
• What you hope to achieve with your complaint and how you think we can best solve your complaint.

Yes. If requested, KfW Development Bank will not disclose the identity of the complainant to the body commissioned to implement the project. We will only disclose documents transmitted confidentially with the complainant's approval. And in case confidentiality may constrain efforts to seek a satisfactory resolution we will contact you to agree on the next steps.