Stand:updated on 29.01.2020 | Topic BaFin Functions & history
BaFin acts in the public interest. Its main objective is to ensure the proper functioning, stability and integrity of Germany’s financial system. Bank customers, insurance policyholders and investors should be able to trust the financial system.
BaFin’s staff work in Bonn and Frankfurt am Main. They supervise banks, financial services institutions, payment institutions, e-money institutions, German branches of foreign credit institutions from the European Economic Area, insurers, Pensionsfonds, German asset managers and German funds. All the related figures can be found in the current annual report.
BaFin’s solvency supervision activities help, for example, to counteract risks to the assets entrusted to institutions. In addition, BaFin’s market supervision aims to safeguard fair and transparent conditions in the markets and to ensure collective consumer protection. This extends to all the products and financial services that fall under BaFin’s supervision.
Another part of BaFin’s mandate is to prevent the financial system from being misused for money laundering or terrorist financing purposes. To this end, BaFin makes sure, for example, that the companies it supervises comply with the applicable requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. In Germany, banks, financial services providers and insurance companies are not allowed to conduct business without official authorisation. BaFin oversees compliance with this prohibition, having been granted far-reaching powers of investigation and intervention for this purpose. Through its involvement in numerous European committees, BaFin is helping to create a single European financial market. Furthermore, BaFin is engaged in international bodies, playing an active role in the formation of global supervisory standards.
On 1 May 2002, the federal supervisory offices for banks (Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Kreditwesen – BAKred), securities trading (Bundesaufsichtsamt für den Wertpapierhandel – BAWe) and insurance (Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Versicherungswesen – BAV) were merged to form the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin).
BaFin has also been Germany's national resolution authority (NRA) since 1 January 2018. The current organisational structure can be found in BaFin’s organisation chart.