As Co-CEOs, the two managers have jointly managed the Association of German Banks since 2018.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The Association of German Banks (BdB) is surprisingly parting ways with CEO Andreas Krautscheid. The lobby organization of the German private banks announced that the 60-year-old would be leaving as part of a reorganization of the BdB in February. In the future, the BdB will be managed solely by Christian Ossig, who has shared leadership with Krautscheid since 2018.
According to financial circles, the decisive factor in Krautscheits departure was Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing, who has been BdB President since July 2021. Several people familiar with the topic told the Handelsblatt that Sewing wants to make the association more efficient and have only one contact person there. Due to the dual leadership at the BdB, there were friction losses. Therefore, an agreement was reached with Krautscheid to terminate his contract.
In principle, a dual leadership at the BdB is the exception and not the rule anyway. Within the association, many saw the nomination of the duo Ossig and Krautscheid as an emergency solution after ex-president Hans-Walter Peters parted ways with general manager Michael Kemmer in 2017.
Some also attribute the fact that his successor Sewing is now reorganizing the BdB to the outcome of the federal elections. After the government was taken over by the SPD, Greens and FDP, many lobby groups in Berlin are currently regrouping, especially since many new MPs have also moved into the Bundestag.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Krautscheid also has good contacts with the FDP and the Greens. As a former CDU minister and general secretary in North Rhine-Westphalia, he is naturally closest to the Union. If Armin Laschet had won the election, the BdB would probably have stuck with Krautscheid for longer, said people familiar with the topic.
Sewing: “With a managing director, we can run the association more leanly”
Krautscheid did not want to comment on the reasons for his departure. In a statement from the association, he spoke of eleven challenging and exciting years at the BdB. “The activity in the banking association, which has lasted for more than a decade, has always been a reflection of the development of the entire industry, from the effects of the financial crisis with extensive national and European regulation to digitization, with the inclusion of fintechs in the association to the current task of the banks financing a sustainable economy.”
Sewing said goodbye to Krautscheid with warm words. He is a highly respected representative of private banks and, together with Ossig, realigned the organization and led it through the pandemic. Now the successful path will be continued with Ossig. “With a managing director, we can run the association more leanly.”
The BdB represents the interests of over 170 private banks and around 30 extraordinary members such as fintechs. The members include large institutes such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, but also many small private and regional banks.
The BdB recently made headlines mainly because of its deposit protection fund, which had to compensate investors on a large scale after the Bremer Greensill Bank went bankrupt. The private banks then decided to fundamentally reorganize their deposit insurance and drastically reduced the scope of protection.
More: Deutsche Bank is “very confident” about the return target – investors have doubts.