The financial centre initiative Frankfurt Main Finance e. V. welcomed three new members at the turn of the year. The international law firm Alexander & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB, the IT service provider SIA, which focuses on the financial sector, and Standard Chartered Bank AG have all come on board as supporting members. As a founding member of Frankfurt Main Finance, Morgan Stanley will continue to actively support the initiative through its new Frankfurt-based company for the EU 27 countries, Morgan Stanley Europe SE.
With their membership, the companies from the financial industry and the emerging FinTech sector demonstrate their affiliation with the financial centre, address current financial sector topics, and work towards increasing the national and international importance of the Frankfurt am Main financial centre and the Rhine-Main region in general.
Gerhard Wiesheu, President of Frankfurt Main Finance, comments: “The commitment of our long-standing and new members is an important expression of allegiance with the Frankfurt financial centre. Moreover, the strong bond between its many players under the umbrella of Frankfurt Main Finance benefits not only the individual but also the financial centre as a whole. We look forward to an intensive exchange on the personal level and to networking with all the stakeholders.”
Dr Nicolas Bremer, partner and head of the Banking and Finance Team at Alexander & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB, says: “With our membership in Frankfurt Main Finance, we would like to strengthen our commitment to Frankfurt as a financial centre and become more involved in the Frankfurt financial community. Not least due to the Brexit, Frankfurt is gaining importance as an international financial centre, which is also increasingly recognised by countries in the Middle East and Africa. As a law firm with a strong regional focus on the MENA region, we are seeing a substantial rise in business relationships between Frankfurt and this area. We look forward to a lively exchange with Frankfurt Main Finance.”
Dr Hanns Christoph Siebold, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Operating Officer at Morgan Stanley Europe SE, adds: “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Frankfurt Main Finance as Morgan Stanley Europe SE. Our expertise and consistent focus on our clients’ needs enable us to provide global opportunities and solutions for the most complex challenges. To achieve this, cooperation within a global network is indispensable. The financial centre initiative Frankfurt Main Finance is precisely the type of medium required to expand networks between the relevant players and consolidate our presence in the German market.”
Alessandro Agnoletti, Head of Innovation at SIA, comments: “We are particularly proud to join Frankfurt Main Finance and to contribute further to accelerating the development of the financial centre of Frankfurt, Germany and the Eurozone. SIA supports this initiative by leveraging its know-how, expertise and people in leading the innovation of digital pan-European payment services and infrastructures. We strongly believe in the importance of dialogue and collaboration between public and private entities of different sectors and activities, in order to promote new effective initiatives and to benefit of an increasingly inclusive and sustainable future.”
Michael Hellbeck, Chief Risk Officer and Member of the Executive Board of Standard Chartered Bank AG Germany, says: “The Frankfurt financial centre is an important location for our bank on the European continent and the site of our EU headquarters. We have continuously expanded our team at the Frankfurt location and assigned important roles to the location. Our commitment to Frankfurt has therefore grown significantly in recent years, so that our membership in Frankfurt Main Finance has been a logical step. We would like to contribute to the development of Frankfurt as a financial centre and actively seek the exchange with other players from the world of finance. Frankfurt Main Finance offers an optimal platform for this purpose.”
Expanded information services
With the beginning of the new year, Frankfurt Main Finance has also significantly expanded its information services on the Internet:
The most important step was the complete relaunch of the website www.frankfurt-main-finance.com. It provides, among other things, news and facts about the Frankfurt financial centre, the other financial centres in Germany and the European Union and also international financial centres. New features include the even more prominent presentation of and focus on the concerns of the association members, as well as a separate page offering an overview of the most important local information and regulations on the COVID-19 pandemic in English.
In addition, the first episodes of the new Frankfurt Main Finance podcast series “Mein Finanzplatz” (My Financial Centre) are available for listening, featuring Gerhard Wiesheu, President of Frankfurt Main Finance, Oliver Schwebel, Head of the Frankfurt Business Development Agency, and Uwe Becker, Treasurer of the City of Frankfurt, among others.
