Premiere in Frankfurt: Bankhaus Metzler, which has been family-owned without interruption since 1674, held its first annual press conference as a stock corporation on Tuesday.

Board member Emmerich Müller only briefly discussed the merger of the holding company with Bankhaus Metzler, which was announced more than a year ago, and the change in legal form that took place in mid-2021.

He justified the step with the ever-increasing regulatory and supervisory requirements and the lower costs.

Markus Fruehauf

Editor in Business.

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Otherwise he seemed very relaxed when it came to how the private bank is positioned in the increasingly difficult market environment.

Even if Müller avoided forecasting the prospects for the current year in view of the geopolitical and economic uncertainties as well as the inflation issue, he was satisfied with the development of new business in the first three months.

He sees stagflationary tendencies in the world economy and a strong economic slowdown in Europe as possible scenarios.

So far, the markets have remained relatively stable compared to the Corona crash in March 2020.

Due to the structure of the business model, Müller does not fear any loan defaults.

With a view to the turnaround in interest rates, the risks have largely been eliminated.

Despite the uncertain framework conditions, Müller was convinced that Bankhaus Metzler could continue to operate the business successfully.

"Our focused business strategy, the family-run ownership structure and thus our independence as well as the extremely strong capital base of the bank give us confidence," he said, pointing out that the bank does not operate an active deposit and lending business: "And that is also proving its worth now."

Largest corporate pension fund

Last year, Metzler increased its balance sheet total by almost 40 percent to 8.8 billion euros.

The main reason for this was the increase in fiduciary positions in the successful business of company pension schemes.

These increased from 4.2 billion to 6.3 billion euros.

The Metzler pension fund, which was founded eight years ago, has thus grown to become the largest inter-company pension fund in Germany in 2021.

At the end of 2021, the bank looked after more than 270 companies with a good 100,000 pension relationships.

Müller looked back on the 2021 financial year with great satisfaction.

It clearly exceeded expectations.

The economy has recovered noticeably despite the supply chain problem.

According to him, all four business areas - asset management, capital markets, corporate finance and private banking - were able to record very pleasing growth rates.

Commission income increased from EUR 187 million to EUR 193 million, while interest income remained at the previous year's level of EUR 9 million.

The risk provision as the result of the securities portfolios of the liquidity reserve, the lending business and the changes in the taxed reserves (§§340f and §§340g HGB) amounted to 15 million euros.