Over one week, we moved into our new headquarters in Hamburg at the end of September – after a four year construction period. I personally moved in as early as mid-August. I wanted to see whether there were any teething problems that could be fixed before the move.

Before the relocation, our employees had the opportunity to work for two days in the new environment on a trial basis. There was a lot of curiosity on the one hand, and on the other it gave them the chance to familiarise themselves with the surroundings. The move was therefore not a Big Bang, which was important to us. Everyone could get to know the technology in advance. Instead of working with fixed desktop computers, everyone now uses notebooks. That allows for more flexibility. We do not have desk sharing – everyone has their own desk – but with notebooks people can move to other rooms for project work or use an „office for a day“ for quiet work. We can now say that the technology performs well under full load. All around 800 Berenberg employees in Hamburg are now united at the new location. Three Hamburg sites have become one.

We had the opportunity to plan a building from the ground up so that it fully matches our needs and vision. The 50-metre-high office tower offers around 19,000 square metres on 13 floors, providing ample space for our 800 Hamburg employees. Another attractive feature is that our new headquarters includes a restaurant offering high-quality meals at low prices. We call it „1590“, in reference to Berenberg’s founding year. The feedback in the first few days has been very positive.

In 2021, we decided to leave our long-time headquarters on Hamburg’s Binnenalster. The building had reached the end of its life cycle. The landlord wanted to renovate it and would have liked to keep us as tenants under new conditions. After decades of enjoying a very favourable lease, the decision to move was also an economic one. At the new site, we could bring together customer-facing units and staff departments such as IT.

The new headquarters is a clear commitment to Hamburg. We remain deeply rooted here, even though our new offices are no longer downtown but closer to the airport. From here, we can literally see the runway. It takes about ten minutes to get from the airport to Berenberg.

It is not only advantageous for our own operations and employees across our 17 other domestic and international locations, but also makes it easier for clients from abroad to visit us. Berenberg’s business model has changed – the bank is now larger and far more international than in the early 1970s, when it moved to the Binnenalster. At the same time, we will remain close to our Hamburg clients. From next year, we will use a historic villa on the Outer Alster – formerly occupied by the shipping company Rickmers – as a venue for client meetings and events. We are not forgetting our roots. The new headquarters and the villa form a coherent overall concept.

We have initially leased the new building for 15 years. The landlord is an investment company.

Our new headquarters is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. We want to offer attractive working conditions, as we are convinced that a high level of physical presence is important for Berenberg’s culture. Our employees should collaborate closely. After the pandemic, we are swimming against the tide with a 100 percent on-site presence rate – compared both with other industries and with other banks in Germany.

Of course, by foregoing remote work we saw a certain amount of turnover. But we believe it benefits us when departments – including IT – work closely together. We can fill vacancies even in a tight labour market. The new headquarters, its atmosphere and culture, personal workspaces, and amenities such as the in-house restaurant and sports or yoga classes all help ensure that people enjoy coming to the office.

The 100 percent presence requirement also applies at our other sites such as London and New York. Our approach is similar to that of Anglo-Saxon investment banks. And yes, I sense that some peers in Germany look at us with a touch of envy.

Hamburg, with about 800 employees, remains our largest location, followed by London with around 400 and then Frankfurt. Our headquarters and many of our clients are in Hamburg, so there is no reason to question this location. The corporate banking division, which serves clients across Europe, is largely based here, although we also have offices in Frankfurt and Munich. The exact location depends on client proximity, value chains, and the ability to recruit specialists and talent.

Wealth management is led from Hamburg, with branches in major German cities such as Munich, Düsseldorf, and Stuttgart. Asset management is mainly based in Frankfurt, while most staff functions are located in Hamburg.

About one-third of Berenberg’s roughly 1,500 employees work in staff functions, which also include our IT department.

Correct. The investment banking business is managed almost entirely from London. There are sales offices in several European cities such as Frankfurt – where much of our equity capital markets business operates – as well as Zurich, Paris, and Stockholm. Trading is based in Hamburg. Earlier this year, we decided that the analysis of German equities would once again be handled by analysts in Germany. We have assembled a strong, well-regarded team based in Hamburg, focusing on small- and mid-cap research. Previously, all equity research had been based in London.

Our market position in German equity research and in investment banking generally is strong, as our long-standing joint investor conference with Goldman Sachs in Munich has shown. Berenberg’s strong market standing is widely recognised. However, the importance of the German investment-banking business is increasing, and we seized a good opportunity to strengthen it further.

We stand by our position of not pursuing acquisitions in the banking sector. Berenberg will continue to grow organically in equity research. Integrating external units is often complex and consumes significant capacity.

We currently have 18 offices worldwide and feel well positioned both domestically and internationally. We are not planning any additional sites at this time.

Indeed, there is a lot of movement in the sector – driven by regulation and cost pressure. To remain independent over the long term, a strong business model is essential. With its three business segments and high level of specialisation, Berenberg is well positioned to operate independently for the long run.

Our operations in the US are going well. We distribute European research to American institutional investors. At the Europe–US interface, we are a trusted partner for European companies seeking access to the US capital market.

We have not experienced any restrictions from the new US administration as a foreign bank. On the contrary, there is a strong trend toward deregulation in the United States, with a similar development observable in the United Kingdom. In Europe, we should be careful not to let regulatory burdens put banks at a further competitive disadvantage, especially when it comes to cross-border transactions.

Supervisory authorities in Europe and Germany are considering simplifications. There is currently a window of opportunity that should be used. More and more foreign banks are entering the German market, partly because the investment plans of the federal government make the environment attractive. The government’s initiatives will succeed best if the financial strength of banks is harnessed to leverage and finance investment. For that, strong banks are essential. I therefore advocate a reasonable level playing field in regulation. In recent years, some regulatory screws have been tightened a bit too far.

Artificial intelligence is a major topic for our industry. We must prepare for significant impact and change. Immense budgets are being invested in AI, though the technology is still in its early stages. We should only use models we truly understand. Regulation will also play a role here. Each institution must carefully analyse where and how AI can be applied. There are already first approaches and strategies in specific business areas that provide guidance.

At present, I do not see evidence that AI will cause major job losses in our business. Experience shows that people remain essential for quality assurance and deal-making. Moreover, our industry will continue to feel the effects of the skills shortage.

Two years ago, Berenberg established a competence centre to understand AI’s impact and potential and to initiate corresponding measures and processes. We believe we are reasonably well positioned compared with our competitors in terms of expertise and practical use of AI.

When we moved into the new building, we launched an unusual advertising campaign. We placed ads in a subway station to highlight that we offer attractive career opportunities here. In certain areas like IT, Berenberg is not necessarily top of mind as an employer, but we operate our entire IT infrastructure ourselves, which involves highly demanding work.

We have repeatedly reviewed whether to remain in-house users. Berenberg’s success as an independent private bank stems from serving niche markets. For that, we rely on tailor-made IT solutions.

That is often the case for institutions focused on a single business line, typically private banking. For them, outsourcing may make sense. But we operate across multiple divisions – corporate banking, asset and wealth management, and investment banking – with a broad range of services. For our business model, an in-house, tailor-made IT strategy offers clear advantages. We maintain the necessary IT expertise internally to develop bank-specific applications and to continuously modernise our systems. A system switch can be very expensive – and it can go wrong.

Christian Kühn has been with Berenberg for 28 years. In 2017, the 57-year-old joined the bank’s management board, and in 2020 he became one of three personally liable partners, responsible for the staff divisions. Kühn’s professional roots lie in risk controlling. After completing his studies, the Kiel native joined Berenberg in 1997 – where he established the controlling department. In the years that followed, Berenberg became significantly more international, which also required a different approach to oversight. In 2021, Kühn joined the executive board of the Association of German Banks and has been a Member of its Presidency for two years. Kühn says it is important to him to contribute to representing the interests of smaller and mid-sized institutions, given the heterogeneous nature of Germany’s private banking sector.