Bitkom
Bitkom is the association of the digital economy in Germany and was founded in Berlin in October 1999. More than 2,200 companies are members, among them more than 1,000 small and medium-sized firms, around 700 tech startups and half of the 40 DAX companies. Bitkom describes itself as the most important digital association in Germany and the largest European think tank on digital topics.
Bitkom represents its members toward the federal government and the Bundestag, writes position papers and publishes surveys on how companies use digital technology. The members work together in working groups on fields that range from AI and data to security, public administration and digital sovereignty. The stated aim of Bitkom is to make Germany a leading location for the digital economy.
Members and membership
The more than 2,200 member companies of Bitkom range from tech startups to global groups, and half of the 40 DAX companies are members as well. More than 1,000 members are small and medium-sized firms, and around 700 are tech startups that work in the same bodies as the large groups. Banks and fintechs take part through the working group on fintechs and digital banking, whose active members include Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, N26, Klarna, Stripe and Visa.
The Bitkom Servicegesellschaft offers services to members and other companies through its own units. The Bitkom Akademie trains specialists and managers on IT topics and digital trends, and Bitkom Research carries out the market research behind the surveys of the association.
President, executive board and management
Ralf Wintergerst, chief executive of Giesecke+Devrient, is the president of Bitkom. The vice presidents are Michael Hagspihl of Deutsche Telekom, Christina Raab of Accenture, who is also treasurer, Tanja Rückert of Bosch and Thomas Saueressig of SAP. Members of the executive board serve in a personal and honorary capacity for two years and can be reelected.
Further members of the executive board come from Microsoft, Vodafone, Telefónica, Samsung, Nokia, Schwarz Digits, Helsing and Flix. Aiga Senftleben, co-founder and managing director of the fintech Billie, also sits on the board. Bernhard Rohleder has led the staff of Bitkom as chief executive since the founding in 1999, together with a management board for finance, policy, technology and law.
AI in German companies
Bitkom asks German companies every year how they use AI. In the survey published on 14 September 2026, 57 percent of companies with 20 or more employees used AI, up from 36 percent a year earlier and 20 percent two years earlier. Another 38 percent planned or discussed using it, and only 4 percent said that AI is not a topic for them.
The same survey of 603 companies shows how far most firms still have to go, because only 3 percent said they tap the potential of AI to a large extent. President Ralf Wintergerst put it this way: a company that only buys a license has bought AI but has not changed anything yet. Bitkom brings the topic to its AIDAQ summit in Berlin, which covers AI, data and quantum computing with around 2,500 participants and 220 speakers.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Germany
Working groups on fintech, digital banking and blockchain
The working group FinTechs & Digital Banking calls itself the central point of contact for companies that want to shape the digital financial sector in Germany. Its topics include the modernization of financial regulation, AI in finance, cloud services for banks, eIDAS and digital identities for KYC, open finance and private retirement provision. The board includes Christoph Kuban of Revolut, Sascha Dewald of DKB, Lea Maria Siering of Zalando Payments and Verena Thaler of Raisin.
The working group Blockchain sees itself as the voice and platform for blockchain technology in Germany, with topics from tokens and tokenization to self-sovereign identity. Its board brings together Anika Patz of YPOG, Benedikt Faupel of Bitpanda Asset Management, Carolin Hartmann of LBBW, Matthias Hirtschulz of d-fine, Michael Kirchmayer of Boerse Stuttgart, Valerie von Lucke of Commerzbank and Sven Wagenknecht of BTC-ECHO.
Digital euro and the choice of payment methods
Bitkom supports the digital euro and asked for a quick introduction in its statement for the hearing in the finance committee of the Bundestag in February 2024. The statement cited a Bitkom survey in which 82 percent of German companies said the ECB should issue a digital euro, while 65 percent expected private digital currencies to dominate without one. Bitkom asked for a clear legal tender status and clearly defined roles for central banks and intermediaries, and it sees programmable payments, such as machines that order and pay for their own spare parts, as a driver of innovation.
In a position paper of July 2024, Bitkom called for every shop, trade business and public authority in Germany to accept at least one digital payment method next to cash. The paper also asks to abolish minimum amounts for card payments and to support merchants with public funding when they introduce digital payments.
Digital sovereignty and data centers
Since 2025 Bitkom has published a report series on digital sovereignty, and its first edition found that 96 percent of companies in Germany obtain digital technology or services from abroad. Of those companies, 90 percent see themselves as dependent on these imports. The same question comes up in banks that move core systems to the cloud, where sovereign cloud offerings keep data and operations under European control.
A study that the Borderstep Institute wrote for Bitkom counts 2,980 megawatts of data center capacity in Germany in 2025, 9 percent more than a year earlier. The Frankfurt area, the largest site for data centers in Germany, has more than 1,100 megawatts and thus over a third of the national capacity. Bitkom expects AI data centers to make up 40 percent of all capacity in Germany by 2030.
Events in Berlin: DigiFin, AIDAQ and TRANSFORM
Bitkom runs its large events in Berlin, among them TRANSFORM on digital transformation and AIDAQ on AI, data and quantum computing. For banks and fintechs the main date is DigiFin, which Bitkom organizes together with Payment & Banking at the Kosmos in Berlin. DigiFin brings around 500 decision makers from politics, finance and tech to 45 sessions and presents the award Fintech of the Year.
The Smart Country Convention in Berlin is the event of Bitkom on digital government and smart cities. The eIDAS Summit deals with digital identities and trust services, which matter for the EUDI wallet and for KYC in banks. Smaller conferences of Bitkom cover data centers, digital health and data protection.
Address in Berlin
The office of Bitkom is at Albrechtstraße 10 in 10117 Berlin-Mitte, and the association is registered at the district court of Charlottenburg under the number 19542 NZ. The service company Bitkom Servicegesellschaft and the nonprofit DFA Digital für alle, which organizes the annual Digitaltag, also have their seat in Berlin.
Bitkom and Finance Loop
Finance Loop members at banks, payment firms and fintechs work on the questions that the Bitkom working groups raise with policy makers, from the digital euro and digital identities to AI under the EU AI Act. Finance Loop discusses these questions with practitioners at its events in the Payments & Digital Money track.
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.