Dr. Oliver Wagner
… contributes his experience and network from 20 years of working in and with banking associations, banks and other financial services firms. A trained lawyer he started his career at the Association of German Banks (BdB) in 2000. In his time at the BdB he was involved in the debate about various capital market law issues. He took up the position of managing director of the Association of Foreign Banks (VAB) in 2009 and accompanied the foreign banks based in Germany through numerous projects resulting from the regulatory reforms after the 2008/2009 financial crisis. This included his close involvement in many expert committees of German and European bank supervisory authorities and serving as a port of call for politics, ministries, supervisors and the media on all foreign bank related issues. In the course of the Brexit preparations, he established the VAB as one of the central contact points for financial firms entering the German market or expanding their business operations in Germany and for political decision-makers in Germany’s financial center.
His guiding principle: “Also when it comes to advocacy you are working in the famous ‘small village’. In order to be successful and contribute sustainable and trustworthy advocacy, you have to work out and understand all the issues and questions of stakeholders. This includes understanding the background of regulatory projects, but also being able to provide carefully targeted and detailed information and communicate openly. Only if you have understood an idea yourself, you can convince others!”
Bernd Brabänder
… is the founder of Commentum. For over 20 years he has represented the interests of financial services providers vis-à-vis politicians, government agencies and the community of experts.
He started his professional career in 1989 when he joined the Savings Bank Group in Frankfurt and worked his way up to head of public relations, marketing and statistics. He joined the Association of German Banks in 1996 as the Head of the Chief Executive’s office and took over the position of Director EU affairs in 1999. From 2005 until 2012 he was a member of the executive board of the association. As chief economist he published numerous papers on banking and financial policy, represented the position of the private banks in the media, and was a popular speaker on economic and banking policies at conferences and dinners. As international executive he was responsible for the association‘s global strategy and the contacts to European and international institutions. He was the chairman and member of numerous committees on the market participants’ side and presented the results of their work successfully in many hearings and political discussions.
His credo: “Lobbying is not an arcane science; rather, it is the product of honesty, expertise, reliability and solid, long term contacts.”
Dr. Harald Lob
…bases his involvement with Commentum on his many years of work at Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), where he was involved in all major regulatory projects.
His project responsibilities included Basel II, the spin-off of KfW IPEX Bank GmbH and the establishment of regulatory compliance. He spent four years as a national expert in two German cabinets of the EU Commission and previously worked as a research assistant for the French competition authority as part of his doctorate on French competition policy. All this gave him a comprehensive insight into European legislative planning. This was the basis for his cooperation with other development banks in Germany and abroad.