About us

Location	Frankfurt, Germany	Funding Type	Private
No of Students	2391	Establishment	HE Institution / College
Founded In	1957	Estimated Cost of Living	10200 EUR
Address	Adickesallee 32-34, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

With a history of success that goes back decades, Frankfurt School is now one of Germany’s leading business schools.

In 1957, Professor Dr Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller and Dr Reinhold Sellien founded Bankakademie e.V. (the Banking Academy) as an association. Initially based on the premises of the Gabler-Verlag publishing house in Wiesbaden, this organisation would later become Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. The academy’s mission was to provide professional training to bank employees – an activity in which it swiftly set new standards.

Less
In 1966, Bankakademie was re-established in Germany’s main financial hub, Frankfurt am Main. The association also acquired new members, in the form of the region’s private banking associations and the Verband der Genossenschaftsbanken (Association of Cooperative Banks).

The very first Bankakademie training course – still a cornerstone of Frankfurt School’s continuing education programme – set a new vocational training benchmark.

The Bankfachwirt (IHK) qualification – Banking Specialist, Chamber of Industry & Commerce – has its origins in Bankakademie’s first final examination. In 1972, the Bankfachwirt examination was placed under the authority of the German Chambers of Industry & Commerce, achieving industry-wide recognition in the process. Step by step, the Bankfachwirt course was extended to include first a Bankbetriebswirt (Bank Administrator) course, and then a Management-Studium course. Once again, Bankakademie set new standards with this tripartite professional development model, which has become the cross-disciplinary standard for continuing education across the finance industry as a whole. Today’s student body is more or less equally divided between employees of publicly owned, cooperative and private banks

Progression
In 1989, Bankakademie set up its own publishing house, primarily in order to distribute the association’s regularly updated study materials. Since then, it has made a name for itself as a publisher specialising in financial topics.

Just one year later, in 1990, the institution took another major step forward by founding its own university. This was a logical response to the impressive growth of Germany’s financial sector. Banking and finance were becoming more complex and global; at the same time, investment banking was rapidly gaining in importance.

Banks needed employees who, in addition to good banking knowledge, also possessed a solid grounding in economics and methodological skills, as well as international experience.

Less
The new university, the Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft (College of Banking) – usually abbreviated to HfB – met these needs and more by providing a degree course in business administration. From the outset, the course included a compulsory semester abroad and training in a foreign language.

To start with, the university focused exclusively on bank employees. They would start their degree courses once they had completed their bank training, working part-time in parallel with their studies.

1992 saw the inception of the International Affairs unit, subsequently rechristened International Advisory Services (IAS). The unit’s consultants and trainers managed development finance projects in emerging and developing nations. IAS swiftly earned a first-class reputation as a microfinance specialist in particular. Clients and partners included international donor organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international finance companies. Until ConCap was set up in April 2009, IAS also advised the fund management team at the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), the largest investment fund for SME finance and housing development in southeast Europe.

In 1995, the Corporate Programmes & Services unit was launched. In addition to open seminars, the unit offered companies in-house training programmes, as well as outsourcing and consulting services. The new business unit met a growing demand for seminars and training courses that delivered knowledge and skills in specific areas of financial specialisation. The unit also helped companies to fulfil their needs in all areas of professional development.

In 2000, following the ratification of the Bologna Process, HfB was one of the first universities in Germany to convert its degree courses to the favoured Bachelor and Master formats. The range of degree programmes on offer continues to expand steadily, and now covers all areas of finance and management.

2001 saw the creation of a subsidiary, efiport AG, that focused primarily on the design of e-learning tools for delivering banking and finance-related content. The Internet boom of the late 1990s had a direct impact on learning and study methods. E-learning elements were used to supplement classroom-style seminars and more conventional approaches based on textbooks and study materials.

Shortly after this, in 2003, the organisation engaged in its first joint venture by acquiring a stake in the Shanghai International Banking & Finance Institute (SIBFI). Today, Frankfurt School is the majority shareholder.

In 2004, HfB gained the right to award doctorates, in the process becoming a state-recognised university. The research side was expanded. The Doctoral Programme in Finance, Management & Accounting was launched. And the organisation became steadily more international; most Master programmes were now taught exclusively in English.

In early 2007, just in time to celebrate the institution’s fiftieth anniversary, all the university’s educational and advisory services were united under the umbrella of a new brand: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

During 2007, Frankfurt School also absorbed vbb – Vereinigung für Bankberufsbildung e. V. (Association for Professional Bank Training), in the process combining the experience and skills of two of the German finance industry’s longest-serving educational and advisory institutions.

In April 2009, Frankfurt School transferred all management and consulting activities aimed at funds specialising in development finance to a dedicated subsidiary: ConCap Connective Capital.