Finance in Munich

Frankfurt has the central banks and the largest stock exchange; Munich has the insurers. Allianz and the reinsurer Munich Re are both headquartered in the city, and their asset managers invest the premiums of millions of customers. MEAG manages assets for Munich Re and its primary insurer ERGO. Around them work the German units of other insurers and reinsurers, as the page on fintech in Munich describes, where insurance also shaped the startup scene.

Banking is the second pillar. HypoVereinsbank, part of UniCredit, and BayernLB, the Bavarian state bank, have their head offices in Munich, and cooperative banks, savings banks and private banks serve the region's companies and wealthy families. The Finanzplatz München Initiative (fpmi) says it "strengthens Munich's position as a financial center, highlights its services and makes its requirements heard". According to the Munich chamber of commerce (in German), it was set up on the initiative of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and brings together financial firms, chambers, associations and scientific and government institutions.

Munich has its own exchange. The Bayerische Börse AG runs the Börse München with two trading systems: MAX-ONE, organized with specialists, and gettex, a market maker system that charges no brokerage fee and trades for long hours. According to Wikipedia (in German), Baader Bank is the market maker for shares, bonds, ETFs and funds on gettex.

Exchanges in Germany are supervised by the federal states, so the Bavarian economics ministry oversees the Munich exchange, while BaFin supervises the banks, brokers and market makers that trade on it. Munich has no BaFin office of its own: BaFin works from Bonn and Frankfurt, and a Munich bank or insurer follows the same national and EU rules as one in Frankfurt.

For the insurers, Solvency II sets capital and risk management rules, and the Insurance Distribution Directive governs how policies are sold. Banks apply the EU capital rules and BaFin's MaRisk, explained on the page on risk management in Frankfurt. Asset managers work under the fund rules and, for client business, MiFID II.

Two EU rules cut across all of them. DORA makes IT and cyber risk a supervised topic for insurers, banks and asset managers alike, and the EU AI Act counts AI for risk assessment and pricing in life and health insurance as high-risk, which matters in a city where insurers build pricing models. The page on AI in insurance goes into that.

The universities feed the sector. LMU Munich has an Institute for Finance and Banking, which runs the Munich Finance Day, and the Technical University of Munich teaches finance next to engineering and computer science. Students at TUM run the TUM Blockchain Club, by its own account the biggest student-run blockchain club in Germany. The Munich FinanceCircle calls itself "Munich's most dynamic finance society".

Someone new to finance in Munich should know that the city runs on insurance money and long-term investing: reinsurance, life insurance and the asset managers behind them. Emerging technology reaches these firms through AI in underwriting and claims, through tokenized funds and bonds, and through the wealthtech firms covered on the page on wealthtech in Munich.

Finance Loop started in Frankfurt and launched its Munich chapter with an event in the city. In Munich it is the meeting place for people from insurers, banks, asset managers and fintechs, together with the IT and AI people who work for them. It connects the finance, IT and AI communities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

W3MUC, Munich's web3 hub, is a network partner of Finance Loop, and the two hold finance and web3 events in Munich for finance professionals. Finance Loop's Bitcoin for Investors masterclass runs in Munich as well, described on the page on the Bitcoin seminar in Munich.

Yes, with a profile of its own. Munich is the center of the German insurance industry, with Allianz and Munich Re, and home to large banks such as HypoVereinsbank and BayernLB and to the Munich stock exchange. Frankfurt remains the center for central banks, supervision and the largest exchange.

The fpmi is the association of Munich's financial center. Set up on the initiative of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, it brings together financial firms, chambers, associations and scientific and government institutions, and it represents the interests of the Munich financial center in Germany and abroad.

gettex is a trading system of the Munich stock exchange, run by Bayerische Börse AG. It works with market makers, charges no brokerage fee and has long trading hours.

Yes. Finance Loop holds events in Munich, some with its network partner W3MUC, and its Bitcoin for Investors masterclass runs there. The Munich Finance Day at LMU and conferences in the city add more. Dates of Finance Loop events are in the calendar on this page.