News 2019 Celebration to mark the change of presidency at the Hesse Regional Office of Deutsche Bundesbank on 3 May 2019

News
2019

Celebration to mark the change of presidency at the Hesse
Regional Office of Deutsche Bundesbank on 3 May 2019

At the celebration to mark the handover of presidency from Diana Rutzka-Hascher to
Thomas Ollinger, Tilmann Wittershagen, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Association of Banks in Hesse and Spokesman for the Central Region Manage‐
ment of Deutsche Bank AG, thanked Ms Rutzka-Hascher for the long-standing coope‐
ration with the Hesse Regional Office of Deutsche Bundesbank. He went on to speak
about banking supervision and regulation, the low interest rate environment and the
challenges of digitalisation.

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Bettina Orlopp at “Frankfurt meets Berlin” on 2 May 2019 in
Berlin

On 2 May, Bettina Orlopp took part in a fascinating panel discussion at the “Frankfurt
meets Berlin” event in Berlin – a valuable initiative which seeks to build further
bridges between Germany’s political and financial capitals. In their opening spee‐
ches, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Mayor of Frankfurt Peter Feldmann un‐
derlined their support for Frankfurt as a business and financial centre. In the subse‐
quent panel discussion alongside Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Member of the Bundestag
for the FDP, Joachim Wuermeling, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Bun‐
desbank, and other representatives from the business community, Bettina Orlopp
stressed that a strong banking industry is hugely important to Frankfurt’s position as
a financial centre. She said policymakers now needed to further strengthen its role as
a business location, especially with respect to issues currently as important as digita‐
lisation and Brexit.

Seminar for teachers
The Association of Banks in Hesse once again held a three-day advanced seminar for
teachers of finance and economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

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from 15 to 17 April 2019. The traditional joint reception was hosted by Frank Beh‐
rends, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Banks in Hes‐
se and Member of the Board of Directors of ODDO-BHF AG. This year’s event focused
on themes relating to society, banks and digital trends. The next event is scheduled
for 7 to 9 October 2019.

21 March 2019 – New leadership of the Association of
Banks in Hesse
   • Bettina Orlopp elected new Chairman
   • Sarah Schmidtke takes over management of the regional association

Frankfurt am Main, 22 March 2019 – The Members’ Assembly of the Association of
Banks in Hesse has elected Bettina Orlopp, Member of the Board of Managing Direc‐
tors of Commerzbank AG, as its new Chairman. Ms Orlopp will take up her duties on 1
April 2019 and succeeds Frank Behrends, Member of the Board of Directors of ODDO-
BHF AG, who is stepping down at the end of his three-year term in office.

Frank Behrends will continue to support the Association of Banks in Hesse as Deputy
Chairman of the Board of Directors. Lutz Raettig, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
of Morgan Stanley Bank AG, and Tilman Wittershagen, Spokesman for the Central Re‐
gion Management of Deutsche Bank AG, remain in their posts as fellow Deputy Chair‐
men of the Board of Directors of the Association of Banks in Hesse.

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The Board of Directors of the Association of Banks in Hesse has also appointed Sarah
Schmidtke new Managing Director of the association from 1 April 2019. She takes
over from Jürgen Ziebe, who has held this office since 2014 and is now retiring.

Bettina Orlopp said: “Frankfurt is an important location which is currently experien‐
cing a lively influx of new activity. I see that as an opportunity to build on the strengt‐
hs of this location. So I look forward to continuing the successful work of Frank Beh‐
rends together with Sarah Schmidtke and her team.”

Frank Behrends thanked Jürgen Ziebe for the fruitful cooperation over the last few
years and warmly welcomed Sarah Schmidtke: “At a time of radical change for the fi‐
nancial centre of Hesse, Ms Schmidtke will strengthen our profile with her wealth of
political and international experience. The Board of Directors looks forward to wor‐
king with her,” said Frank Behrends.

Bettina Orlopp has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerz‐
bank AG since 2016 with responsibility for legal affairs, human resources and compli‐
ance. Prior to that, she was Divisional Board Member responsible for Group Develop‐
ment and Strategy at Commerzbank AG and a partner at McKinsey & Company.

Sarah Schmidtke was until now Head of the Frankfurt Office of the European Banking
Federation. Previously, she was a financial attaché at the British Embassy in Berlin
and worked for several years in investment banking for major international banks in
Frankfurt, London and Paris.

About the Association of Banks in Hesse – The association has 112 members which
employ a total of around 39,000 employees and include big banks, regional banks,
mortgage banks, private bankers and branches of almost all major foreign banks. Ex‐
panding and enhancing the importance of Frankfurt am Main as a financial centre is
the main focus of the association’s work. It organises discussion forums to promote
the exchange of ideas among its member banks. It also cooperates closely with other
associations on issues of common interest and discusses issues of industry-wide rele‐
vance. The association represents the interests of its members to lawmakers and pu‐
blic authorities in Hesse and to the general public.

3rd Hesse Banking Congress 2019
The 3rd Hesse Banking Congress on 21 March 2019 honoured the Frankfurt School of
Finance & Management’s top graduates of 2018 in Banking Studies, Banking Busi‐
ness Administration and Management: Ulrike Kirchner, Jan Szybalski and Marc Janich.
They were congratulated by Frank Behrends, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Direc‐

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tors of the Association of Banks in Hesse and Member of the Board of Directors of OD‐
DO-BHF AG, and Professor Nils Stieglitz, President and Managing Director of the
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Karlheinz Walch, Deputy Head of Banking and Financial Supervision at Deutsche Bun‐
desbank, then gave a speech entitled “Are we on the verge of a turning point? Cur‐
rent developments in banking supervision”. The subsequent reception offered an op‐
portunity for further discussion.

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