Frankfurt Main Finance
Frankfurt is one of Europe's leading finance and fintech hubs, home to a dense concentration of financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and related market participants. From here, Frankfurt Main Finance acts as voice of the Frankfurt financial center in Germany, the European Union, and abroad.
Frankfurt Main Finance connects banks, asset managers, insurers, financial infrastructure providers, fintechs, public authorities, and political stakeholders. As a neutral industry initiative, it brings established institutions, innovators, policymakers, and academia together to promote Frankfurt as a financial center.
#1 Financial Center in the EU
Frankfurt is widely regarded as the leading financial center in the European Union due to its rising institutional market relevance.
Frankfurt consistently ranks as the top EU hub in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) and is home to the European Central Bank, placing Frankfurt at the heart of European monetary policy. This role is further strengthened by the decision to locate the Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Frankfurt, confirming its position as the EU's most trusted and systemically important financial center.
Supporting Financial Innovation
Frankfurt is a location where innovation meets institutional finance. Frankfurt Main Finance actively supports the integration of new technologies into the financial sector and promotes collaboration across traditional finance and emerging digital models, for example by teaming up with Finance Loop.
Key focus areas include FinTech innovation, digital assets, tokenization, payments infrastructure, sustainable finance, and next-generation financial market design. The goal is to position Frankfurt as a place where innovation can scale within a stable and trusted framework.
Frankfurt: Where Money Is Made
Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank, anchoring monetary policy and financial supervision at the core of the European economy. The city is the leading financial center of the EU and hosts one of the world's largest stock exchanges, a top-tier international airport, and the largest Internet exchange hub.
The FrankfurtRheinMain Metropolitan Region has a population of 5.7 million and provides direct access to markets, capital, and talent. Major European cities are reachable within two or three hours, making the region an ideal base for scaling financial innovation.
Frankfurt Main Finance at Finance Loop events
Finance Loop is a member of Frankfurt Main Finance. Andreas Glänzel, Managing Director of Frankfurt Main Finance, gave a welcome note at the AI Week Frankfurt 2025 finance side event and a keynote at the Sibos 2025 side event, which Finance Loop hosted with Frankfurt Main Finance and OKX Institutional. Frankfurt Main Finance also co-organized the Digital Finance Night, and it financially supported a study on how the German financial sector sees the digital euro.
President, managing directors and board
The president is Oliver Behrens of DWS, the honorary president Dr. Lutz Raettig. The managing directors are Hubertus Väth and Andreas Glänzel; their firm NewMark Finanzkommunikation runs the office. The board of May 2026 has 14 members, among them Dr. Bettina Orlopp (Commerzbank), Dr. Marcus Chromik (Deutsche Bank), Dr. Thomas Book (Deutsche Börse), Thomas Groß (Helaba), Dr. Cornelius Riese (DZ Bank), Dr. Bastian Bergerhoff for the City of Frankfurt and Kaweh Mansoori for the Hessian Ministry of Economics. On 1 February 2027, Sarah Schmidtke becomes CEO of the association; Hubertus Väth leaves the management board on 31 January 2027, after building it up since the founding in 2008. Schmidtke is managing director of the Bankenverband Mitte and of the Interessengemeinschaft Frankfurter Kreditinstitute (IFK) and, since 2023, head of the Banks and Society division at the Association of German Banks. Her first task is to set up the association's own office.
The financial center initiative
Frankfurt Main Finance e.V. is the Finanzplatzinitiative of Frankfurt, founded in 2008. Frankfurt Main Finance's more than 75 members are the State of Hesse, the cities of Frankfurt, Eschborn and Offenbach, banks, exchanges, service providers and universities. The office is at Walther-von-Cronberg-Platz 16, 60594 Frankfurt am Main.
Members and membership
Regular members are legal entities such as banks, service providers, associations and public bodies; they vote at the general meeting. Supporting members and FinTech members can participate without a vote. The FinTech category is open to companies across Germany; company age and employee criteria should be confirmed directly with Frankfurt Main Finance before joining.
Companies can explore FinTech membership at Frankfurt Main Finance and assess the membership benefits for their business. An information package is available through a direct request to Frankfurt Main Finance.
Finance Loop has been a member since September 2024; the general assembly in the Römer is documented on its own page.
Frankfurt Main Finance Events
Frankfurt Main Finance supports professional exchange at the financial center through conferences, expert discussions, workshops and online events. The subjects include financial markets, technology, economic policy and the development of Frankfurt as a financial location. These formats bring business, research, public-policy and regulatory perspectives into discussion.
Food for Thought is a digital discussion series with expert presentations and time for questions. The series covers international developments, regulation and technology, with members and guests taking part. The wider professional event environment also includes banking conferences and FinTech conferences.
Reports and publications
The association publishes a magazine, a podcast, the newsletter Finance Matters and a Facts & Figures section on the financial center. Recent studies are the WealthTech Radar 2026, the Sustainable Finance Cluster white paper on AI in ESG management and the IW study on Germany as an industrial location in times of decarbonization.
Frankfurt as a financial center
Partners at events with Frankfurt Main Finance
Questions? Just Reach Out!
If you want to explore how Frankfurt Main Finance (FMF) can support you in finance, the best starting point is a direct conversation.
Andreas Glänzel is a Managing Director of Frankfurt Main Finance and is deeply connected across politics, corporates, investors, and institutions and understands how to turn the right introductions into real opportunities.
Whether you are working for a bank or another financial company looking to engage with the ecosystem, reaching out can open doors, clarify next steps, and accelerate meaningful collaboration.