Annual report 2009 Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Content
Welcome!...... 4 An international institution ...... 7 Frankfurt School opens a branch in Nairobi...... 7 The Frankfurt School receives support from the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation...... 7 Frankfurt School students awarded a STIBET scholarship ...... 8 Frankfurt School and UNEP open the Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Energy & Climate Finance...... 8 Syrian Fund for Project Finance ...... 9 Frankfurt School and CEIBS set up the German Centre of Banking and Finance in Shanghai...... 9 Frankfurt School opens an office in Beijing...... 10 Frankfurt School welcomes its new Master of International Business students...... 10 Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Masters programme in microfinance ...... 10 Tajik Agricultural Finance Framework (TAFF)...... 11 New partner universities...... 11 International exchange of lecturers and students...... 11 €qualifise ...... 12 Guest lectures ...... 12 Microbanking Summer Academy...... 12 Housing Finance Summer Academy...... 13 Research ...... 14 Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt: new Vice-Presidents of Teaching and Research ...... 14 Prof. Dr. Christina E. Bannier, Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt in the Handelsblatt ranking ...... 14 New assistant professor at the Frankfurt School ...... 14 Inaugural lectures...... 15 Research projects...... 18 Remittances from Austria – a Frankfurt School team analyses money transfers made by immigrants in Austria ...... 18 Identification of efficiency drivers in processes...... 18 KreditSim – new developments in an electronic version...... 18 Process laboratory to improve operational process control...... 18 German Centre of Banking and Finance at the CEIBS ...... 19 Research into behavioural finance and marketing...... 20 Alternative Asset Classes...... 21 Liquidity Risk...... 21 Neurolinguistics: From Glasgow to Tokyo...... 22 ZEW Workshop ...... 22 Congress of the German Institute of Internal Auditing ...... 22 The Ministry of Health’s flagship project on dementia – The FS’s core findings...... 23 Fiscal system and regional economic development: a comparison of China and Rus...... 23 Operational excellence – new education offers...... 24 Education advice at the Frankfurt School...... 24 Certified Compliance Professional (CCP) Corporates...... 24 Reorganisation of the executive Bankfachwirt, Bankbetriebswirt and Management programmes...... 25 2
Renewable Energy Finance continuing education programme starts in Hamburg...... 25 Fraud Management: New continuing education programme at the Frankfurt School ...... 25 Corporate programmes and services ...... 26 Campus Learning Management System (CLM)...... 26 FS for you...... 27 Highlights of 2009...... 27 Frankfurt School in the media ...... 28 Events...... 29 Career Centre...... 33 Alumni...... 34 Fundraising ...... 35 Trade fairs...... 35 ConCap Connective Capital GmbH...... 35 efiport AG...... 36 Frankfurt School Verlag GmbH...... 37 Appendix
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Dear friends of the Frankfurt School,
2009 will be remembered as the year of the global economic and financial crisis – and it’s a crisis that is not over yet. Turbulent times in the financial markets, the battle to rescue individual banks, the sad end of Quelle and the still rather uncertain future of Opel in Germany are just some examples of how the crisis has manifested itself over the past year.
We are delighted and proud that the Frankfurt School has come through 2009 well. We have created 26 new posts and taken on a total of 54 new colleagues. Student and turnover figures are just as pleasing as you will see from the “Facts & Figures ” section we have compiled for you.
As well as telling you how well our business has been doing, I would also like to remind you of some of the highlights of university life for us in 2009.
In January and November 2009 we awarded scholarships to Masters students through our Foundation for the very first time. The scholarship gives them a monthly amount towards their living costs and a reduction in tuition fees. Solely for students who are from developing and emerging nations, this support is essential if they are to be able to study in Germany and at the Frankfurt School.
On 20 March 2009 we held a celebration for our founder, Professor Dr. Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller, and in his honour dedicated a professorship in his name. Professor Dr. Ursula Walther’s professorship has been named after him, so Ms Walther is now the incumbent of the Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller Chair of Financial Risk Management. Accompanied by his wife, Dr. Jutta Buscha-Hagenmüller, our founder came to Frankfurt for the occasion and with old and new friends and acquaintances swapped memories and discussed developments in the business school and in the financial centre itself. The Chairman of our Foundation Board and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Commerzbank, Professor Dr. h.c. Klaus-Peter Müller, looked back over Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller’s varied life and his successful career in academia and banking. In a moving speech, Prof. Dr. Hagenmüller thanked the School for this honour.
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On the night of 29 September 2009, Prof. Dr. Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller died in Leipzig at the age of 92. He founded the Frankfurt School’s predecessor, the Bankakademie, and was Academic Director from 1957 to 1981 as well as chairman of our Advisory Council. He set up the Prof. Dr. Karl Fr. Hagenmüller Foundation in 2000 to encourage new banking talent. With his passing the Frankfurt School has lost a most loyal friend and patron.
At the end of November, in the presence of around forty guests, we celebrated Siegfried Suda’s 90 th birthday. He was our first Managing Director and played a crucial role in shaping the fortunes of our institution.
Prof. Dr. Udo Steffens (l.) and Siegfried Suda
Having our own boarding house is a good development because it means that we are able to offer at least some of our students “a little piece of home”.
Fifteen students have been living here since October and there are plans to extend the house. It is actually in Offenbach, but just 15 minutes away from our campus on the S-Bahn.
The Frankfurt School of Finance & Management’s boarding house in Offenbach
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You can read about more of the highlights of 2009 in the different strategic sections where they occurred. Perhaps they will jog your memory a little or give you a desire to find out more about us personally. Perhaps they will even encourage you to call in on the Frankfurt School again.
I would like to thank all the friends of the Frankfurt School, our students and delegates, our clients, our graduates and especially the alumni associations, as well as our lecturers and trainers for the confidence they have in the Frankfurt School and for your confidence in us.
My thanks also go to members of the Foundation Board and the Advisory Council who stood shoulder to shoulder with us once again with their foresight, constructive criticism and support in 2009.
Our employees are actually the ones who make the Frankfurt School possible, so thanks very much to them too!
I hope you continue to view the Frankfurt School favourably – well into 2010!
Udo Steffens
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An international institution
Frankfurt School opens a branch in Nairobi
The Frankfurt School opened a regional office in Nairobi, Kenya on 18 February 2009 where the team has been in place for eight months. A small ceremony was held to mark the opening with a number of guests from the Kenyan world of finance, such as Equity Bank, Central Bank, IFC, KfW and EIB. The office is in the Nairobi suburb of Kileleshwa.
The Frankfurt School receives support from the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation
In February, the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation in Wuppertal donated 750,000 euros to support the establishment of the East-West Centre for Business Studies and Cultural Science at the Frankfurt School. This donation has been used to create a lectureship, doctoral positions and the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Award for Chinese Business Studies. The Centre is being run by Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath. This is a continuation of the backing given to the Sino-German School of Governance which was set up in cooperation with the Jackstädt Foundation at Witten-Herdecke University, and is now based at the Frankfurt School.
The establishment of this Centre is an opportunity for the Frankfurt School to raise its profile in basic and applied research into the interface between corporate organisation and market dynamics. Business studies is an interdisciplinary area of research and, with the Foundation’s support, the Centre will be focusing on China, a country that today is a laboratory for new forms of corporate organisation, business models and institutional experiments. In its basic research work, the Centre is developing suitable analytical tools, concentrating in particular on evolutionary economics and the interdisciplinary interfaces between cognitive sciences, psychology and sociology. Evolutionary economics deals with the emergence and dissemination of innovations in the economy.
Against this research backdrop, the Centre is realigning the new Master of International Business programme at the Frankfurt School. Its current focus on business between Europe and Asia is being supplemented in the autumn with the inclusion of creative industries. This is being done in collaboration with the Australian Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation in Brisbane, Australia.
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Frankfurt School students awarded a STIBET scholarship
Three students on the international Master of Finance programme at the Frankfurt School were awarded the DAAD-STIBET scholarship in the 2008/09 winter semester.
Thi Hong Phuong Nguyen from Vietnam, Denis Cassat from France and Kleitia Monari from Albania with Prof.Dr. Thomas Heimer
The DAAD STIBET scholarship is a financial grant to support final degrees. All three Masters students were selected for their academic performance and commitment during their course.
Frankfurt School and UNEP open the Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Energy & Climate Finance
The Frankfurt School and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) opened the Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Energy & Climate Finance, which is based at the Frankfurt School, on 11 May 2009 with a symposium on financing renewable energies and the impact of the financial crisis.
UNEP and the Frankfurt School are contributing their respective core competencies to this strategic partnership: while UNEP has expertise in the environment, climate change and financing sustainable energies, the Frankfurt School is providing experience from within the European finance industry and making use of this in developing and emerging countries.
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Syrian Fund for Project Finance
The International Advisory Service (IAS) division of the Frankfurt School announces the successful launch of the Syrian Fund for Project Finance website.
The Syrian Fund for Project Finance is a programme financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Along with the Syrian Ministry of Finance, it provides attractive long-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote the Syrian economy. A credit line of 80 million euros will be available for the duration of the project (up to June 2011) through local banks for private sector SME projects. As well as managing the credit line, the Frankfurt School team is providing technical support to local public banks participating in the programme against a backdrop of transferring best practice in lending. The Frankfurt School is also introducing a comprehensive training programme for all participating banks (both public and private).
Frankfurt School and CEIBS set up the German Centre of Banking and Finance in Shanghai
On 1 September the Frankfurt School and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) set up the German Centre of Banking and Finance in Shanghai.
The Centre’s role is to establish a permanent, financially-oriented research and teaching capacity in China. Joint projects between the Frankfurt School and CEIBS will also be integrated. The two business schools have been cooperating on teaching and research since 2008 and are jointly implementing a certificate programme for Chinese managers and researching the development and future of the Chinese banking sector.
After setting up the Shanghai International Banking & Finance Institute (SIBFI) five years ago and opening the East-West Centre of Business Studies and Cultural Science (ECBC) on the Frankfurt campus last year, the German Centre of Banking and Finance is an extension of the FS’s activities in and around China, the biggest growth market in the world.
Prof. Dr. Horst Löchel, Professor of Economics at the Frankfurt School, was placed by the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM), the human resources provider for German development cooperation. As director, he will be running and developing the German Centre of Banking and Finance. Prof. Dr. Horst Löchel has been in Shanghai since 2003 where he set up the SIBFI. He has also accepted a chair at the China European International Business School (CEIBS) as an adjunct professor, supplementing teaching and research in the faculty of economics from 1 September 2009.
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Frankfurt School opens an office in Beijing
The Frankfurt School has been running an office in Beijing, China, since 10 September 2009.
The office is managed by the Frankfurt School’s representative in China, Yan Yumin and it is from here that the Frankfurt School’s programmes are being introduced to the Chinese market. The office offers a platform both for the faculty and for Frankfurt School consultants.
Frankfurt School welcomes its new Master of International Business students
Induction events took place on 6 October 2009 for students on the Master of International Business programme. In all 39 students from all over the world are starting the course, from countries such as China, Belgium, Mexico, Nigeria, Australia, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, India and Colombia as well as Germany. After being given a whole host of information, tours of the campus, explanations about the library and a tour of the city, the day ended in classic Frankfurt style at Äppelwoi-Wagner in Sachsenhausen.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Masters programme in microfinance
It is easy to open a bank account in Germany. In Congo things are a little different: there are only a handful of few banks and the poor do not have access to them and therefore have no opportunity to take out loans. To change this, the global tried-and-test model of microfinancing is being used in Congo too so that those in need can become entrepreneurs with small and very small loans.
Students of the Master of Microfinance programme with Prof. Mgr. Daniel Ngoy Boliya, Vice-Chancellor of the UPC, and Frankfurt School President Prof. Dr. Udo Steffens.
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This shortcoming is now being met by the Congolese-German Centre for Microfinance (CCAM) which was set up by the Frankfurt School in 2009 in the Protestant University of Congo (UPC) in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Centre is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) which is promoting various centres of excellence in Africa.
The CCAM’s focus is the English-language Master of Microfinance programme which trains young Congolese men and women to become experts in microfinance. The first programme began in October 2009 and close to 100 candidates applied for 35 places on the course, of whom fifteen are receiving a full scholarship from DAAD.
Tajik Agricultural Finance Framework (TAFF)
The Frankfurt School’s International Advisory Service (IAS) went live on 23 November 2009 with an official website on the Tajik Agricultural Finance Framework (TAFF) project.
The Tajik Agricultural Finance Framework (TAFF) is a programme financed by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with the aim of restructuring the Tajik agricultural sector, including its cotton sub-sector. Along with the Australian agricultural consulting company KasWag, the team from the Frankfurt School is offering technical support and training for partner institutions participating in the project, currently Agroinvestbank, Bank Eskhata, Tojiksodirotbonk and microfinance organisation OXUS. Tailor-made lending techniques and innovative loan products that have been developed under TAFF have been successfully set up in partner institutions.
The website offers an informative overview of the project, new products and plenty of information about the Tajik microfinance and agricultural sector, as well as all the latest developments.
New partner universities
In 2009 the Frankfurt School acquired new partner universities in Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Iceland, Japan, Canada, Colombia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, the USA and China in an expansion of its global network.
International exchange of lecturers and students
Last year five visiting professors came to the Frankfurt School, while three members of the FS faculty went abroad on research and teaching trips. Twenty-one students on the Bachelor programme and 9 on the Master of Finance also visited the Frankfurt School.
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€qualifise
The FS also played a successful role during 2009 in the European €qualifise project set up to standardise and allow comparisons between attainment levels offered by professional qualifications in the financial services industry. As the only German institution involved and working with representatives from fourteen other European countries, our work centred on developing methods to ensure the measurability of competency-based qualifications programmes against the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and their classification into comprehensible competency levels. All relevant qualifications in continuing education as well as in the banking, insurance and financial services sectors in Germany were registered and examples of programmes assigned to pre-defined levels using the EQF system. Experiences with the EQF, an evaluation of the methods used in it and sector-specific problems were recorded and passed on to the EU in a core report, along with the experiences of all the other countries. This brought the project to a successful conclusion and also gave the FS valuable experience which it will put to good use in the design of its own programmes.
Guest lectures
19 June 2009: Prof. Dr. Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University
Political scientist Prof. Dr. Elinor Ostrom spoke at the Frankfurt School on 19 June 2009 on the topic of “Collective action and the commons”, presenting her research work during the lecture.
24 June 2009: Prof. Dr. Anastasia V. Kartasheva, Assistant Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Dr. Anastasia V. Kartasheva, Assistant Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, spoke at the Frankfurt School on 24 June 2009 during the Brown Bag series of seminars. The title of her lecture was “Competition among credit rating agencies and ratings accuracy”.
Microbanking Summer Academy
Thirty participants from all over the world spent a week at the Frankfurt School premises in the heart of Frankfurt. During 5 days of intensive training they received detailed input on a range of topics – institutional performance measurement, risk management, treasury management, access to capital markets and branchless banking. Extensive room for networking between the participants was provided through the varied evening program, which included a barbeque in the Frankfurt School quad as well as evening lectures touching on recent developments in the financial market. The end of this week of training was marked by an exciting panel discussion, where experts from all over the world held a lively discussion about the challenges and opportunities for microfinance in light of the financial crisis.
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Housing Finance Summer Academy
Even in a challenging business environment, housing finance in developing and emerging countries is growing rapidly. Issues related to origination, underwriting, monitoring and alternatives for funding mortgage loans require specialised knowledge in the area. The Housing Finance Summer Academy which took place in August aimed to help participants develop the tools necessary to implement and/or improve mortgage lending operations in their financial institution. Practitioners obtained deeper insight into diverse strategies aimed at improving and refining their existing operations.
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Research
Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt: new Vice-Presidents of Teaching and Research
Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote has been appointed Vice-President of Teaching and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt Vice- President of Research at the Frankfurt School. Professor Dr. Thomas Heimer, who was Managing Dean from 1999, left the Frankfurt School to take up a chair at the RheinMain University from 1 August 2009 as Professor of Innovation Management in the Faculty of Engineering.
Prof. Dr. Christina E. Bannier, Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt in the Handelsblatt ranking
A list of the 200 most productive researchers in Business Administration compiled by German newspaper Handelsblatt features three professors from the Frankfurt School:
• Prof. Dr. Christina E. Bannier, Commerzbank Foundation Professor of Small Business Financing
• Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote, Professor of Corporate Finance, Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions (FIPEMA)
• Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kliemt, Professor of Philosophy and Economics.
2,100 academics from Germany, Switzerland and Austria were evaluated. A place in the Handelsblatt ranking means being among the ten per cent most productive researchers in German-speaking countries. Handelsblatt bases its evaluations on publications in journals since 2005. Earlier work is not taken into consideration.
New assistant professor at the Frankfurt School
Dr. Natalie Packham: Assistant Professor of Quantitative Finance
Dr. Natalie Packham took up the newly created post of Assistant Professor of Quantitative Finance at the Frankfurt School on 1 June 2009. Her research interests are mathematics of finance, computational finance and quantitative risk management.
Dr. Natalie Packham studied computer science at Bonn University and also has a Masters degree specialising in investment banking from the Frankfurt School. She was awarded her doctorate in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang M. Schmidt with work on the dynamics of credit spreads and variance reduction methods for simulating dependent random vectors. Dr. Natalie Packham also has many years’ professional experience, including as a senior software engineer in Dresdner Kleinwort’s front office.
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Dr. Alexander Libman: Assistant Professor of International Political Economy
Dr. Alexander Libman has been Junior Professor of International Political Economy at the Frankfurt School since November 2009.
He studied Economics and graduated from the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation in Moscow. His first doctorate in Economics was awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and he was then awarded a Dr. rer. pol. doctorate in 2009 from the University of Mannheim. As well as being assistant professor, Dr. Alexander Libman runs the New Political Economy research group at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a research fellow at the East China Normal University in Shanghai. He has also been a research fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of Marburg.
Inaugural lectures
26 March 2009: Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath and Prof. Dr. Adalbert Winkler
Over 250 students, colleagues and friends accepted the Frankfurt School’s invitation to attend the inaugural lectures of Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath and Prof. Dr. Adalbert Winkler.
In his lecture on “Culture and the economy – What have we learned from the last two decades of economic research?” Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, Professor of Business Economics, outlined the most recent developments in institutional and behavioural economics, as well as in social capital research. Building on this, he explained his own more interdisciplinary approach combining economics, sociology and psychology, applying it to China.
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“The financial crisis from the perspective of development finance” was the subject chosen by Prof. Dr. Adalbert Winkler, Professor of Development Finance. In the course of his lecture, he showed how useful principles of development finance can be in analysing financial development.
7 May 2009: Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz
BHF-BANK has established a professorship of Private Wealth Management at the Frankfurt School which is held by Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz.
In his inaugural lecture entitled “Investment strategies in private wealth management – What can we learn from the financial crisis?” he explored the findings from research into finance for investors and their investment strategy. He also explained the academic potential of the discipline.
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19 May 2009: Prof. Dr. Hermann A. Wagner
“Between expectation and regulation – the future of business models in the financial services industry” was the title of Prof. Dr. Hermann A. Wagner’s inaugural lecture. He has accepted a chair in Financial Management at the Frankfurt School.
Business models define the logic as to why investments are undertaken, revenues are created and operations are running in a certain way, and how that all adds value. Value for whom? Looking at the financial services industry today, the expectations of investors, private customers, the real economy, management, politics and, last but not least, the public seem to be extremely diverse. The lecture reflected upon different expectations, conflicts, trade- offs, the role of the industry and capital markets regulation as well as on accounting to give an assessment of the future of business models in the financial services industry.
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Research projects
Remittances from Austria – a Frankfurt School team analyses money transfers made by immigrants in Austria
What happens to the money that immigrants send home to their families? On behalf of the Austrian Development Bank (OeB), Torsten Becker, Paul Hockenos and Elizabeth Holmes of the Frankfurt School’s International Advisory Services division analysed the money transfers sent by immigrants in Austria to their home countries. The focus was on immigrants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova and Serbia.
One the most important findings was that the money they send home is used first and foremost for everyday consumption, food and clothing and to pay heating or medical bills.
Identification of efficiency drivers in processes
A research project entitled “An analysis of efficiency in processes” began at the ProcessLab in March 2009 with the aim of developing a methodology to identify essential drivers of efficiency in business processes. Research is to be carried out into how the systematic causes of process inefficiencies can be identified. Based on findings from an earlier research project and using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and connected association analysis, researchers are currently exploring the extent to which structural links between transaction features and process efficiency can be determined. The aim for 2010 is to present initial findings from the case study with partner Commerzbank AG at an academic conference.
KreditSim – new developments in an electronic version
The simulation game “InsuranceSim” – a variant of KreditSim produced by the ProcessLab – has been developed with our partner Cirquent in 2009 and turned into an electronic workflow using a BPM tool. What is special about this electronic version is that it now offers the possibility of measuring the influence the automation of process flows has on process performance. This has led to an academic article being written on the learning success of training participants with workflow support in this simulation game (the second International Conference on Computer Supported Education). There are now plans to develop the workflow application to depict capacity management in financial service processes during a simulation game.
Process laboratory to improve operational process control
Work is currently underway on a research project at the ProcessLab to develop a process laboratory for service processes. The idea of the process laboratory is to experiment with company processes in an artificial testing environment. Processes are to be simulated with various possibilities when there is operational process control (e.g. changes to order sequences). The results are then carried over into real life and can contribute to improving operational process control in banks and insurance companies.
The idea of the process laboratory has already been presented at an academic conference (ACIS 2009). The next step is to implement it using a process from a partner organisation.
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German Centre of Banking and Finance at the CEIBS
The Frankfurt School and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) jointly established the German Centre of Banking and Finance in Shanghai, China, in 2009. It is another way for the Frankfurt School to strengthen its commitment to China which began with the establishment of the Shanghai International Banking and Finance Institute (SIBFI) in 2003 and has continued with the creation of the East-West Centre for Business Studies and Cultural Sciences (ECBC). The role of the German Centre of Banking and Finance is to support Shanghai in becoming an international financial centre through relevant financial research and teaching. The aim is to turn the Centre into a complete institute serving as a platform for Sino-German exchange around theory and practice in the finance sector.
The Centre continued the EU-China Research Fellowship Programme in 2009 with the publication of two working papers on “China’s Changing Business Model of Banking” and “The Present State of Shanghai as an International Financial Centre”. The EU-China business development certificate programme has also been introduced. This is a post-graduate programme studied alongside employment and has been offered with great success to managers in underdeveloped west China. Both projects are supported by the EU and are being run in cooperation with the CEIBS.
Prof. Dr. Horst Löchel, Professor of Economics at the Frankfurt School and the CEIBS, is heading up the German Centre of Banking and Finance, supported by Helena Xiang Li and Betty Huang. The Centre receives financial backing from the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM), the employment and placement service of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The German Centre of Banking and Finance at the CEIBS was officially opened in Shanghai on 16 November 2009 by Frankfurt’s mayor, Dr. h .c. Roth, in the presence of the Dean and Vice-President of the CEIBS, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf D. Cremer (centre), and the Centre’s Director, Prof. Dr. Horst Löchel.
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Students of the Master of International Business (MIB) programme during their week in Shanghai with Betty Huang in December 2009. As well as attending lectures by professors and people working in the sector on the latest developments in the national economy, management training, turnarounds and asset management in China, the students also visited and toured small and large-scale Chinese companies.
During the Frankfurt book fair which had “China” as its theme, a podium discussion was held at the Frankfurt School on 15 October 2009 on “China’s change has changed the world – Germany meets China”. The speakers were Prof. Dr. Horst Löchel, Prof. Dr. Udo Steffens, President of the Frankfurt School, Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann- Pillath, Academic Director of the East-West Centre for Business Studies and Cultural Science at the Frankfurt School, Prof. Dr. Chen Ping, Professor of Economics at the China Center of Economic Research at Beijing University, and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf D. Cremer. The event was chaired by Andreas Horchler from Hessischer Rundfunk (left to right).
Research into behavioural finance and marketing
Prof. Dr. Dominik Georgi and Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz are currently researching the interface between behavioural finance and marketing, focusing on examining investors’ behavioural deficits (e.g. attention effects). The project explores two key questions: (1) Which behavioural deficits can be found in investors and what financial losses do these deficits cause? (2) What influence do customer-focused banking activities (e.g. intensity of care, advisory meetings, customer information) have on behavioural deficits. The issues are being analysed empirically using real transaction and customer data. The first paper on their findings, entitled “Insider investors, retail investors
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and the attention effect” examines the impact attention effects have on private investors and the boards of public limited companies (company insiders) and whether there is any interaction between different groups of investors.
Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Strohhecker have also embarked on research into “Lifecycle and target- oriented asset allocation for loss-averse investors”. This project explores how an investor should control his asset allocation when he has preferences familiar to behavioural finance (loss aversion). The aim of this project is to determine asset allocation over its lifecycle taking different preferences into account.
In the “Fundamental Indexation” project with Gabrielle Wanzenried and Karsten Döhnert from the Institute of Financial Services in Switzerland, Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz analysed an alternative index concept for shares. Share indices are usually weighted using their market value which means that shares which are over-valued are given a higher weighting while shares that are undervalued receive a very low weighting. The consequence of this is that yield and risk features of indices weighted by market value can be inferior. These aspects are explored in detail in the research paper “Do fundamental indexes produce higher risk-adjusted returns than market cap indexes? Evidence for European stock markets” which shows that weightings using fundamental criteria such as turnover or book value (instead of market capitalisation) produce better index concepts. This article will be appearing in a future issue of the “Financial Markets and Portfolio Management” magazine.
Prof. Dr. Olaf Stotz has also been working on a project concerning investments made in listed companies by private equity firms. What is clear is that public limited companies in which private equity firms have a holding show better price development over the short and long term than the market overall. These excess yields are limited primarily to private equity investments in companies from the same country. This home-bias effect is economically substantial and statistically significant and is described in the research paper “Open market purchases of public equity by private equity investors: size and home bias effects”, produced jointly with Gabrielle Wanzenried and Karsten Döhnert from the Institute of Financial Services in Switzerland.
Alternative Asset Classes
Substantial work on hedge funds was tackled again this year, specifically focusing on funds of funds. Prof. Dr. Thomas Heidorn, together with Dieter Kaiser and Christoph Roder, analysed the maximum drawdown, which has resulted in articles in the Journal of Wealth Management and Absolut/report. The paper was presented during the Frankfurt School’s “Brown Bag Seminar. Dieter Kaiser has also worked on hedge fund yield replication strategies with Markus Müller, and the impact of experience and size on fund of fund returns with Roland Füss and Anthony Strittmatter. The second edition of Hedgefonds was published in 2009.
Liquidity Risk
The research group of Prof. Dr. Thomas Heidorn, Dr. Christian Schmaltz and Christian Schäffler studied liquidity risk in theory and practice. On the theoretical side, Christian Schmaltz completed his doctoral thesis on the optimal management of bank liquidity and had his defence in the spring of 2009. The thesis was published by Gabler this year. The research group derived a liquidity framework that contains the liquidity variables needed to describe bank liquidity. Within the framework an internal liquidity model is set up by assigning specific process assumptions to the liquidity variables. Within the model, the researchers derived a strategy on how liquidity can be optimally managed and how a transfer system can be set up. Some of the findings were presented in five papers and at three conferences. These topics were sponsored by HSH Nordbank. As the regulatory framework changed drastically due to the financial crisis, Prof. Dr. Thomas Heidorn and Christian Schmaltz published a paper
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on the new principles of liquidity management in Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen. The transfer price system for liquidity was also jointly published in a working paper. The main focus of Christian Schäffler’s research is the steering of liquidity stress finding a transfer pricing model. The basic intention is to find a way to price the costs of liquidity buffers and transfer these costs to the departments which are the liquidity consumers. This led to a joint working paper with Christian Schmaltz on “Market Liquidity: An Introduction for Practitioners”.
Neurolinguistics: From Glasgow to Tokyo
A pivotal research project being conducted by Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath is extending neuro-economics with a neurolingistic perspective, in other words the role of language based on modern cognitive science and analytical philosophy of the mind. Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath was one of the guest speakers at the series of workshops on “Limits to rationality in economics and financial markets” at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Glasgow in June 2009. He presented the essential elements of his new book “The Economics of Identity and Creativity. A Cultural Science Approach” which was completed in 2009 and published in early 2010 by Queensland University Press as part of its “Creative Economy + Innovation Culture” series. This new approach is increasingly gaining international interest. In late 2009 Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath was invited by the leading Japanese economist Masahiko Aoki to become the first foreigner to be a Research Fellow in the Tokyo Foundation’s Virtual Center for Advanced Studies in Institution.
ZEW Workshop
At a workshop run on 3 and 4 September 2009 by the ZEW (Centre for European Economic Research) entitled “Empirical Research in Corporate Taxation” and at the 18th Annual Conference of the Tax Research Network (TRN) on 10 and 11 September 2009 in Cardiff, UK, Prof. Dr. Luise Hölscher, Professor of Corporate Taxation and Accounting, and Christine Breunung, a research assistant at the FS, presented their initial findings from empirical research on taxation using business games. In their current research project the influence of the restriction of interest deductibility upon corporate financial decisions is being explored using a business game from the Topsim series produced by TATA Interactive Systems, as well as investigating the suitability of business games as a research tool in corporate (tax) research.
Congress of the German Institute of Internal Auditing
At the annual congress of the German Institute of Internal Auditing (DIIR) held in Dresden on 15 October 2009, Prof. Dr. Luise Hölscher, Professor of Taxation and Accounting, and Johannes Rosenthal, a research assistant at the FS, presented an approach that led to a discussion on the theoretical and practical opportunities and problems that arise when measuring the performance of international audits. The lecture introduced findings from a six-month research project undertaken in collaboration with a regional German bank in which Johannes Rosenthal conducted and evaluated qualitative interviews with members of the board, divisional managers and those responsible for internal audits. The outcome shows that it is possible to identify attributes of internal auditing and derive initial hypotheses on interdependencies between performance indicators.
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The Ministry of Health’s flagship project on dementia – The FS’s core findings The Institute for International Health Management, in conjunction with the Charité, has successfully concluded a clinical study analysing the effectiveness of the German version of Serial Trial Intervention to reduce challenging behaviour of people with dementia (STI – D). Prof. Dr. Rainer Sibbel and his team were investigating the influence of STI-D as a structure-giving care process in relation to a possible standardisation in process as well as employee satisfaction. The central finding is that it is evident that just by having a structural framework in place for the care of dementia – regardless of the process used – there is a marked increase in the quality of care given thanks to process reliability as well as enhanced employee satisfaction.
Fiscal system and regional economic development: a comparison of China and Russia
Research is being conducted at the ECBC into issues around fiscal federalism and regional economic development in large countries. China and Russia have experienced different dynamics in their transformation where the different function of regional and local administrations plays an important role. Various methods such as institutional economics, game theory and econometrics are applied to clarify these contexts in which economic, political and cultural factors come together in a complex way. This extensive project consists of sub- projects which are being part financed by third parties (the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) / Kompetenznetzwerk Postsozialismus and the Jackstädt Foundation). Work is being done in Russia with the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where Prof. Dr. Alexander Libman runs a research group, and in China with the China Economic Information Network of the Chinese State Council, where Prof. Dr. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath is involved in advising on the development of a regional monitoring system, a Chinese government internet portal that analyses, evaluates and records the development of Chinese regions in an indicator system.
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Operational excellence – new education offers
Education advice at the Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School has been offering advice on education since early 2009. The service is free of charge and is not being run on a marketing basis. It is intended for anyone at the Frankfurt School who is interested: trainees, school leavers, bachelor graduates, specialists and executives. The advice is based on an adult education concept and is personalised and unbiased.
When offering advice on education, the needs and questions of the people seeking advice – which can all be very different – are taken into account first. It is essential to consider their personal interest in education (continuing education or studies). It is not at all the aim of the advisory process to get people to apply for a place at the Frankfurt School or book a continuing education programme. The latest findings from research into the provision of education advice are applied in the various difference contexts of a modern business school.
Peter Kiefer, education advisor of FS
Certified Compliance Professional (CCP) Corporates
Dealing with and adhering to company guidelines, voluntary codes, laws and regulations is the focus of work performed by compliance staff and departments. These areas have also become increasingly complex, with more demands being made on the people working in them to develop their knowledge and expertise.
Against this backdrop, the Frankfurt School is developing its education offer around compliance and in May 2009 launched the Certified Compliance Professional (CCP) Corporates certificate programme.
The programme can be taken alongside full-time employment. Lasting for twelve months, it is designed for specialists and managers working in compliance and legal departments in industries of all kinds as well as the public sector and non-profit organisations.
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Reorganisation of the executive Bankfachwirt, Bankbetriebswirt and Management programmes The three Bankfachwirt, Bankbetriebswirt und Management programmes continue to be the backbone of the FS and set standards in the German banking industry. To do justice to their importance and the high demands traditionally made on them, the programmes are continually being developed and 2009 was no exception. The intensive Bankfachwirt course has been enhanced with greater teaching supervision and since last year participants having been getting more feedback on the level of their knowledge of optional subjects. Support given to participants has also been stepped up in the Bankbetriebswirt course by the introduction of mentoring in seminar work. To enable students on the Management course to gain international expertise, they are exclusively being offered an Executive Week at our partner university in Shanghai, the China Europe International Business School.
A completely new offer for banking and management graduates has been added to the traditional programme taken alongside full-time employment with the design of a supplementary three-semester Management & Financial Markets for Professionals programme leading to a Bachelor of Science qualification. It is a business management Bachelor programme tailor-made to young people in the early stages of their career in the banking and savings bank sector that recognises the competences they have already acquired on the executive education programme.
Renewable Energy Finance continuing education programme starts in Hamburg
The Frankfurt School launched its Renewable Energy Finance continuing education programme in the Hamburg Study Centre in September 2009.
The issues around renewable energy finance are complex, relevant and topical, as is apparent from the debate on the Desertec project. Solutions demand an expertise in a range of disciplines and the ability to combine knowledge of economics, business, the law, engineering and banking. Working in renewable energy finance involves a high degree of specialist and social requirements.
The focus of this continuing education programme is on the political, legal, technical and economic principles of renewable energies as well as financing them, for example through banks or via the capital market. Project planning and financing are explored using specific case studies for all renewable forms of energy.
Fraud Management: New continuing education programme at the Frankfurt School
Fraud costs billions every year and corporate and risk management has an important role in fighting it.
Specialists and managers who prevent and uncover cases of fraud, identifying offences and losses within the company, have to follow legal conditions and have specialist expertise and personal skills. This is the basis of the new course that has been launched at the Frankfurt School. In the Certified Fraud Manager (CFM) certificate course which is taken alongside full-time employment, key challenges and aspects of fraud management, based on what happens in practice, are conveyed.
The Frankfurt School has developed the programme in conjunction with fraud specialists to ensure it is relevant and consistent with what is really happening in the business world. The programme can be taken alongside full- time employment.
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Corporate programmes and services
The financial crisis, increasingly international competition and the pressure to innovate: the huge change in market dynamics means that there has been a big change in the freedom with which companies can act. In this context, the establishment of targeted competency management systems can guarantee that added value is safeguarded in companies.
The Frankfurt School has been working as a partner for its global clients in 2009 as well, providing advice, service and education to give its clients the impetus they need by offering performance modules that are relevant for the market and flexible in how they are put together.
Whether it concerns developing self-diagnostic processes or research on governance, fraud, risk and compliance, the focus is always on considerations of efficiency and effectiveness even when analysing complex business processes. Sophisticated e-learning initiatives have also played a special role over the past year with international web-based training as well as blended learning models.
Encouraging greater interaction in virtual communities has been just as important to our multi-national clients as the cost-efficient increase in general learning levels and education quality. Against a backdrop of systematically dealing with gaps in competencies across various business segments, networked, self-guided learning is sure to remain a hot topic.
Campus Learning Management System (CLM)
CLM is continually being developed and improved by efiport AG, the Frankfurt School subsidiary. Given the system’s maturity and flexibility, it has started to be used by other universities as well. Its new authority model means it is possible to fine-tune control of access to data. In partner management, recurring selections are supported by search profiles to save time. There have been refinements to issuing professionally designed e-mail series, and e-mail marketing campaigns can now be analysed in detail by the people managing the campaign. The highly automated process means it is simpler and quicker to process potential applicants. Alumni e.V. uses CLM for member administration which was why a closed portal with a profile database and search options have been made available. Wiki contains the system’s documentation which is being supplemented.
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FS for you
We have given our students and graduates, our clients, seminar participants, friends and patrons and anyone interested in the School plenty of opportunity to participate in and help shape life at the Frankfurt School in 2009. We would like to present some of the high points for you here and also offer some examples of the kinds of forums with which the Frankfurt School has been involved over the past year.
Highlights of 2009
24 March 2009: Students attend the Federal President’s address in Berlin
Accompanied by journalists from ZDF, students on the Management, Philosophy & Economics Bachelor programme watched the Berlin address given by President Horst Köhler and were then asked to critique it. ZDF summarised the students’ opinions and analyses in its “Heute Journal” news programme.
29 April 2009: Frankfurt School comes 11th in the Junge Karriere ranking
The university ranking published in the May edition of “Junge Karriere” magazine is based on a survey of HR Managers working in companies across all sectors. In all 508 HR managers in Germany were asked which universities and higher-education institutions are educating the best graduates. Most of the HR managers come from companies with over 1,000 employees. The Frankfurt School was placed 11th in the top 15 universities for Business Administration in this ranking. A total of 73 universities in Germany offer Business Administration.
17 June 2009: BP presents its Statistical Review of World Energy at the Frankfurt School
BP Germany presented its BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2008 with Christof Rühl, Chief Economist at BP, interpreting and commenting on the data and analysis to over 80 guests. He correlated the output and consumption of energy sources in OECD and non-OECD counties. Two events stand out in the report: the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in the summer of 2008 and the fact that last year primary energy consumption in OECD countries was lower than that in developing countries.
19 June 2009: FPSB makes Ingolf Jungmann an HonCFP
At the general meeting of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) Ingolf Jungmann, Vice-President and member of the Managing Board of the Frankfurt School, was unanimously made an Honorary Certified Financial Planner, (HonCFP for short) in recognition of his support and promotion of strategic financial planning over many years.
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29 June 2009: FS team at the Postbank Finance Awards
A team of students from the Frankfurt School came in the top 7 in a competition with 38 other teams! Supervised by Prof. Dr. Carsten Hermann-Pillath, the team – consisting of Katharina Kauselmann, Michael Kirmes, Isabel Mancuso and Corinna Schauerte – presented their contribution “Learning from the financial crisis”. Their performance received a spontaneous award of 2,500 euros which is for the use of the chair and the team.
K. Kauselmann, C. Schauerte, M. Kirmes (left to right)
30 November 2009: “SHIPeMotion” photography exhibition opens in the Hamburg Study Centre
Ships have been the focus of the work of Hamburg photographer and author Thomas Kunadt for over ten years. His ship spotting has taken him all over the globe and he has systematically explored the biggest ships in the world, as well as producing photographic documents of Hamburg’s port, whose traffic he follows meticulously. He staged a huge retrospective of his work of the past ten years in our Hamburg Study Centre.
Frankfurt School in the media
The Frankfurt School was mentioned 5,921 times in online and print media, on the radio and on TV (clippings).
We counted 7,543 clippings in 2008, with 48 percent of reports coming in the months of September, October and November alone at the peak of the financial crisis when experts from the Frankfurt School were asked to comment on the crisis especially often.
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This 21.5 per cent drop in media reports can be explained by fewer reports being made on the financial crisis, because the strength of Frankfurt School’s media work lies in positioning academics and experts who comment in the media on the latest events and developments – particularly in banking and finance of course.
Events
At the heart of events at the Frankfurt School are our “FS in dialogue” and “Tax & Law Talk” series. We were able to attract speakers for both series in 2009, using their experience and opinions to stimulate debate among our guests.
Frankfurt School in Dialogue
The “Frankfurt School in Dialogue” series tackles topical economic subjects and debates, particularly around banking and finance, politics and society and the areas where they intersect with one another. The events are designed to encourage a dialogue between theory and practice. The speakers also make their presentations and speeches available for downloading from our website.
28 January 2009: Liz Mohn, Vice-Chair of the Board of Management and the Board of Trustees, Bertelsmann Foundation, Gütersloh: Corporate culture – a success factor in times of globalisation
L. Mohn and FS President Prof. Dr. U. Steffens
30 March 2009: Dr. Hugo Bänziger, member of the Board and the Group Executive Committee, Chief Risk Officer, Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main: Reforming the global financial architecture
Dr. H. Bänziger
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26 May 2009: Joe Kaeser, Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board of Siemens AG, Munich: Strategic and Financial Performance – Fundamental driver for the reorientation of Siemens AG
J. Kaeser
8 October 2009: Dr.-Ing. Herbert Lütkestratkötter, Chairman of the Board, HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft, Essen: HOCHTIEF – the international building services provider despite the crisis
Prof. Dr. M. Grote, Vice-President of Teaching, Dr.-Ing. H. Lütkestratkötter, Prof. Dr. U. Steffens (left to right)
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11 November 2009: Gerhard Berssenbrügge, Chairman of the Board, Nestlé Deutschland AG, Frankfurt am Main: Sustainability at Nestlé: creating value for the community — corporate responsibility in value chains all over the world
Andreas Horchler, Editor, HR-Info, G. Berssenbrügge, Prof. Dr. Luise Hölscher, Professor of Accounting and Taxation at the FS, Prof. Dr. M. Grote (left to right)
10 December 2009: Dr. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Bishop of Limburg: The financial crisis as a crisis of values – Catholic social teaching as a guide
Andreas Horchler, Bishop Dr. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Prof. Dr. Udo Steffens (left to right)
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Tax & Law Talk
In the Tax & Law Talk series we address the burning issues at the interface between banking and finance and law and tax. Renowned figures working in the field present case studies, while professors from the Frankfurt School give an academic perspective on the topic. A discussion and informal get-together with guests follow. All the information about this series, as well as the presentations and talks made available by the speakers for downloading, can be found on our homepage.
25 June 2009: Scope for government funds in Germany – foreign trade and company law; lectures by Dr. Robert Weber, Partner, White & Case LLP, Frankfurt am Main; Prof. Dr. Christoph Schalast, Professor of Law, specialising in mergers and acquisitions and European law, Frankfurt School, Frankfurt am Main
21 October 2009: Have we already pinched everything off the net? The new copyright – implications and consequences for artists, the music industry and consumers; podium discussion with Edgar Berger, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment, Cologne; Michael Herberger, keyboard player, musical director and producer of “Söhne Mannheims”, Mannheim; Johannes Kreidler, composer and musician, Berlin; Wolf Urban, strategic marketing consultancy, Hofheim; Prof. Dr. Christoph Schalast, Frankfurt School, Frankfurt am Main; Professor Hubert Wandjo, Business Director & Managing Director, Music Business Course Director, Pop Academy, Mannheim
The panel answers the guests’ questions
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3 December 2009: Michael Best, Head of ARD-Börsenredaktion, Frankfurt am Main: Capitalism reloaded — Where do we have to steer things after the debacle?
Michael Best
Career Centre
Cirquent – Reporting in asset management
On 31 March 2009 the Career Centre at the Frankfurt School ran an event with the corporate consultancy firm Cirquent, an offshoot of the Softlab Group. Thomas Köster, a member of its Corporate Executive Board, presented a paper on “Reporting in asset management”.
AGEF – Make a vision reality
In conjunction with the AGEF association of experts, the Frankfurt School ran a workshop on 21 April 2009 entitled “Make a vision reality”. The objective was to open up career prospects at home and abroad for people from developing and emerging countries who are studying in Germany.
Lufthansa st.i.p. Finance
Presentations were given in the Frankfurt Lufthansa Aviation Center on 23 April 2009 by students who had been on placements as part of the Lufthansa-st.i.p. finance programme. The ten students from the 2007 and 2008 st.i.p.-Finance programme (three of whom came from the Frankfurt School) gave presentations on their assignments and projects to an audience which included selected representatives of the Lufthansa Board. The Frankfurt School’s Kirsten Ratzlaff, Ina Hübener and Franziska Siemens (all in the second semester of the IBWL programme) reported on their four-week placements with Lufthansa subsidiaries Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Sky Chefs.
MLP Workshop
The objective of the MLP support programme on 8 June 2009 was to increase participants’ self-knowledge so that they can pursue their objectives more effectively and present their skills in a more targeted way. The three- module support programme is primarily used in management development.
SEB – Visit from Sweden
The Frankfurt School played host to SEB on 15 September 2009 with a visit by Kyra Gehringer, Recruiting Human Resources Adviser at SEB in Frankfurt, who wanted to reacquaint herself with the Frankfurt School’s Career
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Centre with its new line up. We also had a guest from Sweden in the form of Bilge Özen who works in SEB’s head office in Stockholm in the Performance Management department, looking after talent management, leadership development and high-performing systems. While visiting SEB’s Frankfurt offices, she took the opportunity to learn about Germany’s higher education system and get an “inside” view of a university. With our presentation on the Frankfurt School as a business school and renowned university in the private education sector, we were able to persuade Bilge Özen of the high-quality, comprehensive services our university offers.
Barclays Capital meets Frankfurt School
At another evening event at the Career Centre on 6 October 2009, Barclays Capital was able to inspire 85 students with the topic: “How to apply successfully to an investment bank”. After being welcomed by our Vice- President of Teaching, Prof. Dr. Michael H. Grote, Elena Morris, representative of the European Campus Recruitment from London, gave a valuable presentation in English containing practical tips on everything to do with the application process in an investment bank.
Berenberg Bank
Berenberg Bank introduced itself on 14 October 2009 in a lecture by Dirk Wehmhöner from its Private Banking division on “The Berenberg Unternehmer-Office”, plus a report on entry opportunities at Berenberg by Lisa Gerstner, Personnel Development and University Marketing.
Meet Frankfurt School!
At the in-house “Meet Frankfurt School!” fair on 4 November 2009, some 350 Frankfurt School students met 32 companies from various sectors to find out more about them in individual discussions with personnel managers and representatives from specialist departments. Company representatives were happy to give our students an overview of how to join their company and the career paths available.
Investment Banking Workshop – Morgan Stanley
During the “Company meets Frankfurt School” series of events, the Career Centre welcomed American bank Morgan Stanley to the university on 1 December 2009 at a workshop on “The role of an investment banking analyst in the 21 st century”.
Alumni
Cooperation between the two FS alumni associations resulted in the start of a new tradition in 2009. In the New Year the President held the first annual reception for the committees of the FS alumni associations, inviting them and other FS employees to review the past year and look ahead to the new one.
The range of activities that took place in 2009 focused on working out principles for consolidating the collaboration between the FS and the two associations. Relevant issues were dealt with in a series of workshops which had the shared goal of increasing the long-term loyalty of all FS graduates to the School and their relevant association, and to encourage an exchange between students and graduates, patrons and friends of the FS.
Large numbers of graduates also took part in surveys this year which demonstrated their loyalty to the School! 92 per cent of graduates of the banking and management programme would recommend studying at the FS to others, with 85 per cent of them preferring the FS as a provider of education programmes. Graduates of the
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university programmes are also fans of the FS: 75 per cent prefer it as a provider of education programmes and 93 per cent would recommend studying at the FS to others.
FS Alumni e.V. took up the Alumni Manager’s proposal to support students as they plan and undertake their semester abroad, working with her and the International Office to develop the FS Alumni e.V. travel grant. It is intended for students on either Bachelors or Masters programmes and was awarded for the first time in November 2009.
Fundraising
To make fundraising a long-term undertaking and communicate to the outside world that the FS is worthy of people’s support, opportunities for supporting the FS were put on the School’s website and featured in a brochure under the slogan “Your values promote the future” which includes the following core areas:
• build the future (scholarships) • create knowledge (foundation professorships and doctorates) • make room (infrastructure, for example the library) • help shape campus life (promotion of student initiatives)
Existing ties between the Hagenmüllers and the FS were nurtured and reinforced and in honour of Prof. Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller, the FS decided to re-name Prof. Dr. Ursula Walther’s professorship the Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller Chair of Financial Risk Management. At a ceremony on 20 March 2009, in the presence of Prof. Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller, his wife and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the creation of the Hagenmüller Chair was celebrated with other guests and friends of the FS. Our patron and friend died at the age of 92 in September 2009.
In the company of around 40 guests who included employees, lectures, alumni and family members, the FS celebrated Siegfried Suda’s 90th birthday on 27 November 2009. As the first Managing Director of the Bankakademie, the forerunner of the FS, Siegfried Suda played a crucial role in shaping the fortunes of our institution, prepared the ground for our development and has continued to support us as a friend and patron.
Trade fairs
As in previous years, the Frankfurt School and its education programme have also been represented at various national and international fairs during 2009. overall, 49 national fairs and events and 10 international ones. Two open days were also held in the spring and autumn, allowing the Frankfurt School to introduce itself to anyone interested in finding out more.
ConCap Connective Capital GmbH
ConCap hived off on 1 April 2009
ConCap Connective Capital GmbH (ConCap) has been trading as an independent company since 1 April when it was hived off as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the FS. ConCap emerged out of the International Advisory Services division and specialises in development finance. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has given
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ConCap all the licences required for finance portfolio management, investment intermediation and contract broking. ConCap is a financially independent subsidiary of the FS and can therefore enhance its own reputation and acceptance in the marketplace as well as position its competencies more clearly, with ConCap and the FS consistently making use of common synergies.
Projects and activities
In 2009 ConCap took care of the pre-closing phase associated with the regional investment fund for micro, small and medium-sized companies planning to operate in sub-Saharan Africa (REGMIFA). ConCap not only prepared the business plan and other operational processes, but was also actively involved in finding investors and developing the investment pipeline. ConCap also participated in two tenders for funds, notably the Infrastructure Crisis Facility and Southeast European Energy Efficiency Fund. In both cases ConCap reached the final round in the face of stiff competition and only just missed out on being awarded the mandate.
In the last quarter of the year, the ConCap team started setting up its own fund with the emphasis on social and ethical investments. Known as FinAcc (for “Access to Finance”), it will be launched in the spring of 2010.
Management of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) was taken over from ConCap on 1 January 2010 by a former ConCap team who have set up their own company.
Strategic developments
In 2009 a clear trend began to emerge during the lengthy “inertia” in the microfinance market with a surplus of well-priced refinancing. It therefore seemed sensible for ConCap’s product portfolio to be diversified. Corporate strategy into the future is focusing on development finance, green finance and social and ethical investments. A strategic cooperation with NatureFund is also being developed.
efiport AG
The 2009 financial year went well for efiport AG using the following business structure: Content production for new media in teaching In new media, a large number of high-quality web-based training programmes were used on two major projects. This has enabled processes to be tested and established for large-scale projects too. Similarly there have also been improvements in the quality of tutoring that accompanies all forms of online learning at efiport which has resulted in huge increases in satisfaction levels among those following the programmes. A web-based training programme created with Commerzbank AG has been awarded the Comenius Medal – an indicator of just how high the quality of their work has been. Application development and hosting Like the Frankfurt School, Nibe-SVV has chosen to migrate to the latest version of Campus Learning Management (CLM). Nibe-SVV is market leader in the Netherlands in training and continuing education in banking, insurance and financial services. Business development at efiport AG has also been shaped by the difficult market conditions in 2009, but even so there are new clients who have chosen CLM. The Graduate School Rhein Neckar has commissioned efiport to implement and customise CLM and reorganise its website. In addition to this, web-based training programmes have been developed in English with the Frankfurt School so that different learning concepts can be supported with a more extensive content library in 2010. An application has also been developed for Nibe-SVV involving 36
the implementation of online computer-based testing in test centres. The administrative components of this application are based on modern AJAX technology. In terms of applications development, efiport AG has also been active producing and operating internet portals. Examples include a continuing education portal for brokers which has been set up for Fugger Bank, and two portals for junior staff and relating to diversity (e.g. employees on parental leave) which have been set up and are being hosted for a well-known major German bank.
Frankfurt School Verlag GmbH
Frankfurt School Verlag breaks new ground
2009 has been a year of radical change for the Frankfurt School Verlag with a realignment of its publishing activities in an extremely difficult market. The publisher’s objective is to be positioned as a communications platform for Frankfurt as a financial location and for its publications and events to cover relevant topics. New event formats have also given the publisher more external visibility.
The company featured for the first time at the Frankfurt Book Fair with a podium discussion on “Banking supervision in a state of flux” in conjunction with the publication of a 1,000-page book on banking supervision law that provides a “weighty” answer to a topical issue and sees itself as a definitive work on the subject. The book appeared in early 2010 and has already received excellent reviews in the media. Frankfurt School Verlag will also be running a conference on this subject in May 2010.
Highlights in its event portfolio such as “Audit Challenge”, one of Germany’s biggest conferences for internal auditors, and “NPL Forum”, the leading congress format on problem credit management in German-speaking countries, have been continued and developed successfully. The publishing house broke new ground with conferences such as “Public management” and “Management of health and capability in the finance sector” and a new focus has been placed on green finance and China.
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