Private customer boss Jenny Friese leaves the money house abruptly

Jenny Friese

The former Commerzbank manager only came to Apobank at the beginning of 2021. Now she is already leaving the money house. Apparently there was a dispute in the board of directors.

(Photo: Apobank)

Frankfurt The Apotheker- und Ärztebank (Apobank) does not come to rest even under its new boss Matthias Schellenberg. On Tuesday morning, Apobank announced that private customer boss Jenny Friese had left the bank the night before. “The Supervisory Board has complied with Ms. Friese’s request to relieve her of her duties.”

The sudden departure points to major upheavals within the governing body. Friese has only been a member of the Apobank board since early 2021, and the former Commerzbank manager has been in charge of private customer business since May last year. Schellenberg, who joined Apobank in March, will now take over her department.

The Apobank has been struggling with problems for a long time: their costs are comparatively high. The institute was recently unable to leverage the opportunities inherent in the business model – especially with regard to asset management. Your customers are considered to be much more attractive than those of an average savings bank or cooperative bank.

After all, self-employed doctors and pharmacists are usually so wealthy that they invest larger sums privately. The banks’ competition for this clientele is considered intense.

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Apobank had to take a lot of criticism because of the troubled start of its IT conversion almost two years ago. The switch to the new IT service provider Avaloq from Pentecost 2020 initially failed in parts. In the course of the migration, among other things, transfers and other simple banking services did not run smoothly.

Number of members decreases

Customers reacted angrily, some turned their backs on Apobank. In 2021, the number of members, i.e. the owners of the bank, fell slightly to a good 115,000 – the first decline in ten years. It continued in the first half of 2022.

Several abrupt leadership changes also caused unrest. The bank has already separated from three top managers since the summer of 2020: Olaf Klose, then head of private customers, Thomas Siekmann, chief financial officer and IT director, and Ulrich Sommer, head of the bank, left Apobank, Sommer at the end of last year.

Insiders cite differences of opinion between Schellenberg and her about the direction of Apobank as the reason for Friese’s sudden departure. The bank intends to present a new strategy this year, and savings should also be associated with it. Apobank has total assets of EUR 67 billion, which is well above the largest Volksbanks and Sparda banks.

Dispute over role of consulting firm

In addition, there are apparently differences in the bank regarding the role of the consulting firm BCG. This has been commissioned by Apobank for several years. The previous head of risk, Eckhard Lüdering, pointed out a possible conflict of interest for Schellenberg. The industry service “Platow Brief” and the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” had first reported on it.

The bank did not comment on this. However, she confirmed that Lüdering has indicated a conflict of interest. “A possible conflict of interest regarding the involvement of BCG is currently being examined. According to the experts’ initial assessment, there is no factual basis for such a conflict of interest,” said Apobank.

In addition to Friese, Lüdering is also leaving the bank. The 62-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the year and was not extended at his request.

Just last week, Apobank announced that two new board members would start at the bank at the beginning of 2023. Thomas Runge, previously at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, will be responsible for IT, among other things. The bank announced that the responsibilities on the board of directors would be reorganized. So far, Holger Wessling has been the head of IT, among other things. Sylvia Wilhelm is moving from Volkswagen Bank to Apobank, she will be in charge of the risk department.

Schellenberg was most recently at the private bank Merck Finck, where he was CEO from 2017 to 2020. More than two years ago, Merck Finck announced that Schellenberg would be leaving the company at the end of 2020.

For 2021, the manager had said that Apobank had “done well”. “But we are aware that we definitely have further potential for improvement.” At the end of August, when the money house announced its half-year results, it stated that it would continue to work on “improving the user-friendliness and functionality of its digital customer interfaces and the service experience”.

More: Too many doctor lobbyists: ECB calls for more banking experts on Apobank’s control committee

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