As bank president, Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank, will rely on a lobbyist from Commerzbank. As the Association of German Banks (BdB) announced, Heiner Herkenhoff will become the new Managing Director on April 1. He succeeds Christian Ossig, who resigned a few weeks ago for health reasons. The 60-year-old Herkenhoff knows the BdB very well, he headed the communication there from July 2000 to May 2009 and was most recently also a member of the management.

Markus Frühauf

Editor in business.

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From the Association of Private Banks, he moved to Commerzbank, the second largest member institution after Deutsche Bank. There he was responsible for public relations for more than 13 years as Head of Public Affairs. Before Herkenhoff discovered his heart for the banks, he was responsible for communications at the auditing firm KPMG and from 1995 to 1998 he was head of the office of the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The new BdB chief executive has therefore had the best connections to politics for some time, which may have benefited him in his lobbying work for Commerzbank in Berlin and Brussels.

"Well connected"

Sewing also appreciates Herkenhoff's network: "He has known the Association of German Banks for many years, is just as well networked among the member institutions as he is among political decision-makers in Berlin and Brussels, and has management experience." This gives him excellent prerequisites to lead the Association of German Banks and to stand up for the interests of the industry.

Herkenhoff expressed his thanks for the trust. He sees the Association of German Banks as having an important role to play in supporting banks in making their indispensable contribution to the energy transition and digitisation. "This works best if the regulatory framework is set correctly. This is exactly what the Association of German Banks is committed to," Herkenhoff was quoted as saying in the press release.

After his predecessor Ossig was unable to work for the Bankers' Association for months due to a serious accident in the autumn, Henriette Peucker had provided the Bankers' Association on an interim basis. She will now become Deputy Managing Director again. Sewing thanked her for keeping the association on track during a time of uncertainty. As Head of Policy and Innovation, she will continue to play a strong leadership role in the future and provide important impetus.