Finanz-Szene
Finanz-Szene is a German news service on banks, fintechs and payments, published by Finanz-Szene GmbH in Hamburg. Heinz-Roger Dohms launched it in 2017, and since 2019 he has run it together with Christian Kirchner, who is also a journalist and managing director. Readers get its news in a newsletter at 6 in the morning on every working day and in a podcast with a guest from the industry every Monday.
The readers of Finanz-Szene are board members, decision-makers and specialists in German banking, fintech and payments. More than 40,000 people receive the free newsletter, and a paid premium subscription unlocks the full daily edition and the articles behind the paywall. Recurring subjects include bank earnings, fintech figures, corporate banking, open banking and branch closures.
Morning newsletter for banks and fintechs
The newsletter of Finanz-Szene arrives at 6 in the morning from Monday to Friday and collects the news, exclusive stories and analyses of the day. Readers without a paid plan receive the full premium newsletter on Mondays and Fridays and a shorter compact edition from Tuesday to Thursday. Monthly roundups gather all news from the savings banks, from the cooperative banks and from private banking, together with a list of personnel changes at banks and fintechs.
Podcast and Deep Banking
The podcast of Finanz-Szene is free and stays outside the paywall. Every Monday a guest from banking or fintech joins the show, and past guests include Nick Jue of ING Deutschland and Bettina Orlopp of Commerzbank. Every Friday the weekly episode analyzes current developments in German banking, fintech and payments.
Deep Banking is a second format, in which Christian Kirchner and one guest spend a full episode on a single subject. Episodes have covered the mortgage books of German banks and how banks prepare for the new state-supported retirement savings account.
Premium subscription and corporate plans
A premium subscription costs 69 euros a month after a first month at 9.99 euros, or 690 euros for a year, and all prices include 7 percent VAT. Premium readers receive the full newsletter five days a week and every article that carries the premium label. Companies, teams and associations can buy a corporate plan for at least three users, starting at 1,863 euros, with discounts of 30 percent for ten licenses and 60 percent for fifty.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Germany
Founders, owners and company
Heinz-Roger Dohms launched Finanz-Szene in 2017 after working as an editor at Financial Times Deutschland and as a freelance writer for Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and Manager Magazin. Christian Kirchner joined in 2019 after jobs at Handelsblatt, Financial Times Deutschland and Spiegel Online, and he last headed the Frankfurt office of the business magazine Capital. Both were named business journalists of the year in the finance category in 2020, and Heinz-Roger Dohms had already won the company category in 2018.
Finanz-Szene GmbH is registered in Hamburg, and both founders are its shareholders and managing directors. In 2021 Gruner + Jahr, through its business magazine Capital, and the Hamburg company OMR took minority stakes in Finanz-Szene, which then reported more than 30,000 newsletter recipients.
Editorial team
Bernd Neubacher joined the newsroom in October 2022 after more than 20 years at Börsen-Zeitung, where he had led the desk for banking and insurance since 2009. Georgia Hädicke has written for Finanz-Szene since 2022 and covers the fintech and banking scene in Berlin. Clemens Behr joined in Hamburg in April 2025 from private banking magazin, and Arne Storn, a former banking and insurance editor at Die Zeit, has contributed as a freelancer since 2021.
Banks, fintechs and payments in focus
Finanz-Szene sorts its reporting into banking, digital banking, fintech and payments. The coverage follows Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank closely, along with ING Deutschland, Solarisbank, Trade Republic and the neobank N26. Analyses of open banking, platform banking and the branch network of German banks appear next to the daily news.
Advertising and content partners
Finanz-Szene earns its money from subscriptions and from advertising aimed at decision-makers in German banking, fintech and payments. Several companies support the service as content partners, and their expert articles appear with the label partner content next to the editorial reporting. Every partner accepts the editorial independence of Finanz-Szene without any restriction.
Finanz-Szene and Finance Loop
Finance Loop members from German banks, fintechs and payment companies follow the same questions that Finanz-Szene covers each morning. Instant payments, open banking, core banking systems and the earnings of banks come up in both places. Finance Loop discusses these questions with practitioners at its events in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.