ABSTRACT
The experiences drawn from the Kreditanstalt fÜr Wiederaufbau’s involvement in export finance and loans to India, both in terms of Cold War politics and financial requirement, called for an amendment and update of the existing laws. The changes in the wider political and economic situation in the second half of the 1950s necessitated such a move as well. In too many fields the KfW was operating, at best, in legal no-mans-land while at the same time the government began looking for a way to reduce the country’s ever-growing foreign currency surplus. Both of these requirements would lead to the KfW’s establishment as West Germany’s development aid bank in 1961. In the process a number of changes in the political administration were made which would have an impact on the KfW’s day-to-day running. And, of course, the bank’s operational remit was widened in order to give it more freedom when taking on new tasks for the government.
