Digital bank Frankfurt

Digital banking means doing banking business through apps, websites and APIs: opening an account with an eID, approving a payment on the phone, getting a loan decision from a model. Online banking is the older and narrower term for logging in to an account on the web. Customers use digital banking for the apps of large banks headquartered in Frankfurt, while banks also use the term for changes to their IT and processes.

That change is watched from Frankfurt. The ECB directly supervises the largest banks of the euro area, and in its supervisory priorities for 2026 to 2028 it cut its list to two priorities. The second is strengthening banks' operational resilience and ICT capabilities. According to the priorities, supervisors look at ICT risk management, cyber resilience, third-party risk and how banks carry out their digital transformation strategies, and they refine their methods for judging banks' use of AI. The ECB supervision blog explains why the list got shorter.

Frankfurt's large banks sit in the same banking district as their supervisor. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank run their head offices here. DZ BANK, the central institution of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken with its head office in Frankfurt, works for about 700 cooperative banks. DZ BANK built meinKrypto, a crypto wallet inside the VR Banking App, and received a MiCAR authorization from BaFin for it, so a customer of a local cooperative bank can buy bitcoin in the same app as the current account, if that bank opts in.

Technology partners work on the same programs. Sopra Steria names DORA, PSD3, the Payment Services Regulation, FiDA, financial crime, the digital euro and generative AI among its banking topics, and it organized fAInance, an AI conference for financial institutions in Frankfurt. The regional savings bank and cooperative bank of the city, Frankfurter Sparkasse and Frankfurter Volksbank, provide local residents with online banking services.

Since 17 January 2025, the EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) applies to banks directly. A bank has to manage ICT risk under a documented framework, report major ICT incidents to its supervisor, test its digital resilience, and keep a register of all contracts with ICT third-party providers such as cloud and software vendors. A move to the cloud or a new banking app now comes with contract terms and exit plans that DORA sets.

AI adds a second layer of rules. A model that scores the creditworthiness of a person counts as high-risk under the EU AI Act, and BaFin supervises the AI that German banks use in regulated business. The AI in banking in Germany page covers those rules in detail, and cybersecurity in finance covers the security side.

The Frankfurt European Banking Congress (EBC) is the city's yearly meeting of bankers, central bankers and politicians. The Frankfurt European Banking Congress started in 1991 on the initiative of the International Bankers Forum and, by tradition, takes place on the penultimate Friday in November at the Alte Oper. BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank have co-hosted it since 2016, HSBC since 2019, and the dfv Euro Finance Group organizes it. Participants at the EBC discuss European issues and their role in politics and financial markets; digital banking, the digital euro and bank supervision come up on its stage because the people deciding them work in the same city.

Finance Loop started in Frankfurt and is the meeting place for people who work on digital banking in the city: bank IT and product teams, compliance and risk staff, and the fintechs and AI engineers who build for banks. Finance Loop connects the finance, IT and AI communities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

DZ BANK is an event and network partner of Finance Loop. Finance Loop is a partner of Frankfurt Digital Finance at the Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten, announced fAInance 2026 of Sopra Steria and Fraunhofer IAIS, and is built in collaboration with TechQuartier, where banks and startups meet at panels and meetups. Finance Loop also presented an official side event of AI Week Frankfurt 2025 with Frankfurt Main Finance and Sopra Financial Technology, with talks on AI against financial crime and on AI testing. More on the city is on digital finance in Frankfurt.

Digital banking is banking through apps, websites and APIs, from account opening with an eID to payments, loans and investing. Digital banking covers the customer side and the bank's own processes and IT behind it.

Online banking is logging in to an account through a website to check the balance or send a transfer. Digital banking is wider: mobile apps, digital account opening, instant payments, open banking interfaces and automated processes inside the bank. Many banks still call their web access online banking and their app digital banking.

The ECB supervises the largest banks directly through ECB Banking Supervision in Frankfurt, with BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank as national supervisors. Smaller German banks are supervised by BaFin and the Bundesbank. DORA and the EU AI Act apply to both groups.

The Frankfurt European Banking Congress meets once a year at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt Digital Finance brings finance and fintech people to the Palmengarten, and Finance Loop holds meetups and panels in the city. Dates are in the calendar above.