In 2009, Caisse des Dépots, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, KfW and European Investment Bank founded the Long-Term Investors Club.

[6] KfW banking group covers over 90% of its borrowing needs in the capital markets, mainly through bonds that are guaranteed by the federal government.

Its exemption from having to pay corporate taxes due to its legal status as a public agency and unremunerated equity provided by its public shareholders allow KfW to provide loans for purposes prescribed by the KfW law at lower rates than commercial banks.

KfW is not allowed to compete with commercial banks, but it facilitates their business in areas within its mandate.

KfW Mittelstandsbank (which roughly translates as KfW small and medium enterprises bank), the second largest business unit of the group, provides assistance to German small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including individual entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Through securitization it helped commercial banks to transfer risks from their housing and SME portfolios to the capital market.

KfW Development Bank also works, among other sectors, in health, education, agriculture, forestry, solid waste management.

KfW IPEX-Bank's main sectors of activity are ports, airports, toll roads, bridges and tunnels, railways, ships, planes, telecommunications, energy, and manufacturing.

It pursues a business model broadly similar to that of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

[13] In 2013, KfW agreed to help establish a Portuguese financial institution to foster economic growth and boost job creation in the country.

[15] In September 2008, as investors were scrambling to get their funds out of Lehman Brothers, KfW accidentally wired €320 million ($426 million) to Lehman; Germany's largest circulation newspaper, Bild, called KfW "Germany's Dumbest Bank" at the time.