Finance networking events in Germany

The formats differ mainly in who decides who is in the room. Finteda, the practitioner network for finance, technology and data, runs invitation-only rooms hosted inside banks, funds and data firms in Frankfurt, London, New York, Paris and Zurich. Open meetups such as FinTech FFM in Frankfurt let anyone register and mix founders, bank staff, consultants and investors. Industry bodies such as Frankfurt Main Finance run formats for their member institutions.

Other formats serve one group. Fondsfrauen and 100 Women in Finance run events for women in the industry, described on the women in finance page, and referral groups such as BNI meet weekly at breakfast to pass business to each other, which suits owners of small firms more than bank employees.

Frankfurt hosts the large conferences. The Crypto Assets Conference of Frankfurt School and Deutsche Börse and the Digital Euro Conference take place back to back in spring, and Frankfurt Digital Finance runs at the Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten. Side events fill the evenings of those weeks.

In Berlin, FIBE at CityCube Berlin and Payment Exchange bring the fintech and payments crowd together. In Munich, the TUM Blockchain Conference is the largest blockchain conference, and in Hamburg KI Exchange, a Payment & Banking conference on AI for banks and fintechs, ran at the Prototyp Automuseum.

Finance Loop runs its own evenings and partners with others. The Digital Finance Night, pictured above, is built for people from banks, asset managers, market infrastructure and regulated providers, with short talks, a moderated Q&A and then networking over food and drinks. The Frankfurt Quantum Finance Forum is co-organized with Frankfurt School, the Deutsche Bundesbank and IBM, and the masterclass Bitcoin for Investors runs in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

Membership decides how much access you get. The Network Membership is free and brings event invitations and Finance Loop reports by email. The Premium Membership adds free or discounted access to paid events and third-party conferences and up to 30% off trainings. The Impact Membership adds up to four warm introductions per year and the attendee lists of events you visited.

A networking event is one evening or conference. A network keeps the contacts after it: Finance Loop sends its members invitations to the next events and, for Impact Members, arranges warm introductions and shares the attendee lists of events they visited.

Many are. Open meetups usually charge nothing, and Finance Loop evenings such as the official AI Week Frankfurt side event were free with registration and approval. Conferences and their side events often need a ticket, and Premium Members get free or discounted access to many of them.

Become a Network Member for free on the membership page and the invitations come by email. Organizations that want to host or sponsor an event use the partner programs.