Association of German Banks

The Association of German Banks (German: Bundesverband deutscher Banken) is the association of private banks in Germany and the main lobby group for Germany's financial sector. In the traditional pillar system of the German banking industry this represents all banks that have evolved from merchant banks unlike the co-operative branch (like credit unions) or regional state banks (German public banks). The association is a member of the Central Credit Committee governing the banking industry in Germany and a member of the European Banking Federation. The President of the association is Hans-Walter Peters.

History

Bankenverband was founded 1951 in Cologne as the successor of the pre-war "Centralverbandes des deutschen Bank- und Bankiergewerbes" (Central Association of the German Banking and Financing Industry). Nowadays it is the German Banking Industry Committee. In 1999 it moved to Berlin while the subsidiary Bankverlag (bank publishing company) remained in Cologne: the association also owns an office in Brussels. Legally, the association is an Eingetragener Verein.

From 2016 until 2017, a parliamentary fact-finding committee probed BdB’s potential involvement in tax fraud involving multi-billion-euro trades to get bogus tax reclaims, following the revelations by the CumEx Files; however, the probe proved unable to access emails and documents from BdB. In 2020, public prosecutors on raided the Berlin and Frankfurt offices of BdB as part of a similar investigation.[1]

Goals

BdB represents the joint interests of around 210 private commercial banks and 11 member associations.[2] It identifies relevant national and international developments, particularly regulatory and legislative initiatives, and works out common positions for its members. On behalf of its members, it participates in public debate and plays a part in the political opinion-forming process.[3]

Over the years, the range of responsibilities has grown significantly, now including, among others, running the Deposit Protection Fund and statutory compensation scheme and combating the financial crisis.[4]

Structure

BdB is led by a board of directors (Vorstand[5]). The big banks (Großbanken) staff each 1 member, the small privately owned banks (Privatbankiers) collectively have two seats, the regional banks have four seats, the foreign banks have one seat. By virtue of his office, the General Manager of the association is also a member of the board.

The board elects a president along with two secretaries - by tradition the presidential office should be held alternating between the big banks and the other members of private and regional banks but the rule is not followed strictly.

The daily business is led by the General Manager Michael Kemmer, two further members of the Senior Management Board and seven Members of the Management Board form the association's Management Board.[6]

Presidents

Regional associations

The actual banks are bound to the regional associations of the private banking industry

  • Bankenverband Baden-Württemberg e.V.
  • Bankenverband Bremen e.V.
  • Bankenverband Hamburg e.V.
  • Bankenverband Hessen e.V.
  • Bankenverband Niedersachse e.V.
  • Bankenverband Rheinland-Pfalz
  • Bankenverband Saarland e.V.
  • Bankenverband Schleswig-Holstein e.V.
  • Bankenvereinigung Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V.
  • Bayerischer Bankenverband e.V.
  • Ostdeutscher Bankenverband (OstBV) – Berlin and New states of Germany

References
  1. Patricia Uhlig and Matthias Inverardi (August 4, 2020), German public prosecutors search bank lobby group for evidence in tax fraud scandal Reuters.
  2. en.bankenverband.de, Members
  3. onlinebankenverzeichnis.de, About
  4. en.bankenverband.de, History
  5. en.bankenverband.de, Board of directors
  6. en.bankenverband.de, Management Board

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