Many people associate objectives and strategies chiefly with companies or sportspeople – with winning, competing and seizing the moment. But objectives and strategies are also crucial for public authorities. Because a lack of ambition leads to mediocrity. To quote Laozi: “If you don’t have a goal, you can’t achieve one.”

We at BaFin aim to fulfil our legal mandate effectively, firmly and forward-looking – for a stable and fair financial system that people can trust. That is the vision we are working towards. To achieve this vision, we have set ourselves ten strategic objectives for the years 2026 to 2029. These objectives are based on our previous medium-term targets, which we have reviewed and refined.

Our priorities define how we allocate our resources at BaFin

Some may say that an authority like BaFin already has a clear legal mandate. Is that not enough? Our mandate remains pivotal. However, we don´t want to fulfil our mandate just anyhow – we want to fulfil it in the best way possible.

To do so, we need to set the right priorities in our work. With a team of around 3,000 employees, we cannot oversee every activity in the financial market. Even 6,000 or more employees would not be enough. We have to set priorities.

We have set these priorities with our strategic objectives. They also define in a risk-based manner which topics we want to allocate our resources to in the coming years. This is a vital prerequisite for fulfilling our legal mandate as effectively as possible.

A democracy can only work with trustworthy and effective authorities. This is more important than ever in light of current public debates. That is why we at BaFin need to be efficient, user-friendly, transparent and quick. Our message, to our staff and to the public alike, is clear: what we do is effective and it makes a difference; and not sometime in the future, but as soon as possible.

New: separate goal for complexity reduction and proportionality

What do our objectives look like? They are all equally important and equally ambitious. They reflect our supervisory priorities as well as developments such as the climate crisis, digitalisation, demographic change and the future of work.

One new element is that we have selected the topics of reducing bureaucracy and increasing proportionality as a separate objective. At the national and European level, we advocate making regulation and supervision less complex and taking a more proportional and risk-based approach.

We take responsibility for our actions

Ambition requires responsibility. We therefore want to be measured against our goals. We are making our objectives transparent and sharing how we define success.

With our strategic objectives, we are creating a binding framework to continue developing– and to live up to our own standards for effective supervision, working for the stability, resilience and integrity of the financial system. And thereby making a lasting contribution to a strong and competitive financial sector in Germany.