From Awards, events and the most important speeches at “Banken im Umbruch”

Fintech Dinner, Ladies Lunch and the Diamond Star Award – FinLeap and Ventures experienced three full days at the banking conference in Frankfurt.

The Banken im Umbruch Conference, organized for several years by German newspaper Handelsblatt, is without a doubt the national banking scene’s most important conference. Also this year, the number of top-level speaker was high: from John Cryan, CEO of Deutsche Bank, Axel Weber, CEO of USB and Llyod Blankfein, CEO of Goldmann Sachs to politicians like Wolfgang Schäuble, Minister of Finance and Christian Lindner, Chairman of FDP.

FinLeap participated at the conference in several ways . First, the Company Builder hosted its sixth Fintech CEO Dinner as the official pre-kick off on Tuesday evening. Around 60 top managers from the financial industry gathered together at Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt, to enjoy – besides the three-course-meal and the drinks – an evening full of networking. FinLeap especially thanks lindenpartners, our sponsors and co-host of the event.

The next morning, the Banken im Umbruch kicked off at the conference center “Kap Europa” with an opening talk from Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan, followed by Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, Sparkassen-CEO Georg A1:I21 and Postbank-CEO Frank Strauß. FinLeap CEO Ramin Niroumand took the stage together with Thomas Jorberg, Board Spokesman of GLS. Niroumand and Jorberg discussed the impacts that digitization will have on the banking sector. Niroumand: “100 % digitation is only possible with the right talents. That will be a big challenge for banks. What frightens me is the current speed towards digitation, I doubt that the important players are acting fast enough.” Asked about the new PSD2 regulations, Niroumand stated: “PSD2 can be a huge chance – if all european Banks are working on it together.”

The evening finished with the official “Banken im Umbruch” reception dinner at Palmengarten, with an inspiring dinner speech from Dr. Hans-Dieter Hermann, sport psychologist for the German National Football Team.

Day 2 at “Banken im Umbruch” started with a speech from Axel Weber, CEO of USB. For some of the FinLeap Ventures, the tension was rising, as the Award ceremony of the Diamond Star, the annual conference award, came closer. In the category “Early Stage Fintech”, MoneyMap was nominated, together with FintecSystems and FinCompare. Dr. Frank Broer, Co-Founder of MoneyMap was presenting the MoneyMap business model on stage, then the audience voted – and chose MoneyMap as winner! In the following “Later Stage Fintech” category, the two FinLeap ventures solarisBank and Clark were nominated together with Crealogix/Raisin. In this category, the jury alone chose the winner – Clark! Clark-Co-Founder Dr. Marco Adelt received the prize for the team.

During the following lunch break, FinLeap MP Dr. Carolin Gabor hosted a Fintech Ladies Lunch at the conference venue, which was very well attended. Speaker was Angela Kerek, Partner at Morrison & Foerster, talking about “What a lawyer learned from a tennis pro”.

After two and a half days full of banking, finance andnetworking, the FinLeap family returned to Berlin.

Please read more about the event – and the Award winner Clark and MoneyMap – at Handelsblatt.