Digitisation
at Stuttgart’s financial centre

Börsenplatz Stuttgart

Remit with a vision of the future:
digitisation in Stuttgart’s financial centre

Digitisation is spreading at breathtaking speed through a variety of sectors, leaving them in a spin. Pioneers new to the sector are upsetting established products and services, while decades-old proven production processes are being overturned under the banner of Industry 4.0.
However, digitisation is not only affecting the large traditional companies and SMEs in the Stuttgart region. With their digital solutions, start-ups are also rapidly introducing creative im- pulses into the Stuttgart financial centre. It is one of Germany’s most important financial centres with Stuttgart Börse (stock exchange), 17 bank headquarters, 28 insurance companies and pension funds and four building societies.

As Premier Winfried Kretschmann remarked at the 2016 Stuttgart Financial Summit: “Modern technology in financial services – so-called FinTechs – are going to fundamentally change how we pay for things in future, take out loans, invest our money or obtain advice on financial and insurance products.”

The financial world reinvents itself

Digitisation is both an opportunity and challenge for banks, insurance companies and building societies. In the future they will be able to use mobile-optimised online applications for financial transactions, information or research purposes to communicate intensively with existing and potential customers. New channels are emerging at the same time to increase customer satisfaction and thus also their willingness to recommend services to others – a hugely important aspect in the age of social media. Customers, however, are demanding bespoke products, more transparency and less complexity in the propositions presented to them. Most of all, though, technological innovations in the financial sector call for receptiveness, a high level of dynamism and willingness to adapt on the part of traditional players.

The financial centre initiative “Stuttgart Financial” has announced its first priority: to promote cooperation between established companies and innovative newcomers, aimed at ensuring that the new FinTechs business models do not exacerbate competition and thus become a spring board, and not a stumbling block. After all, Stuttgart’s economically strong and varied financial sector offers many potential investors and clients for FinTechs with future-focused business models.

“As a platform for pooling strengths in the Stuttgart financial centre, we attach importance to establishing the subject of financial innovation as a fixed item on our agenda”, says Dr. Ulli Spankowski, Head of Stuttgart Financial, emphasising the goal of the initiative. Besides networking events like the FinTech Days Stuttgart and Get-finnovative Lounge, Stuttgart Financial is therefore also co-founder of the VentureZphere platform at Stuttgart Börse: the platform capitalises on the close proximity of the business community and networks founders with companies and investors – efforts that reach far beyond the bounds of the city and region.

„Als Plattform zur Bündelung der Kräfte am Finanzplatz Stuttgart ist es uns wichtig, das Thema Finanzinnovation langfristig als festen Bestandteil am Finanzplatz zu etablieren“, unterstreicht Dr. Ulli Spankowski, Leiter von Stuttgart Financial, die damit verfolgte Zielsetzung. Deshalb habe Stuttgart Financial neben Networking-Events wie den FinTech-Days Stuttgart und der Get-finnovative Lounge auch die Plattform VentureZphere at Boerse Stuttgart mitbegründet: Die Plattform nutzt die Nähe zur Wirtschaft und vernetzt Gründer mit Unternehmen und Investoren – und zwar weit über die Stadt- und Landesgrenzen hinaus.

A strong business community needs a strong financial centre

“We would like to support innovation drivers, so that the real economy and the financial industry can draw the benefits from this creative reservoir”, adds Spankowski. For the economic success of Baden-Württemberg in general, and the Stuttgart financial centre in particular, are closely entwined – now as in the past. Industrialisation, which, as we know, was completed at a particularly rapid pace in Southwest Germany, originally prompted the emergence of a strong financial sector: many banks were founded, providing the financial backing to promote progress. In the present day, the strong real economy influences the financial centre like no other.

In turn, the latter provides a million Baden-Württemberg companies and businesses with a reliable and efficient ow of capital – lubricating the wheels for the success of upcoming investment in digitisation.