According to information from the FAZ, the supervisory board of the Apotheker- und Ärztebank (Apobank) negotiated Jenny Friese's termination agreement on Monday.

Friese, who only switched from Commerzbank to the board of directors of Apobank at the beginning of 2021, is said to have negotiated a lavish severance payment.

The reason given for Friese's departure is that she disagrees with CEO Matthias Schellenberg, particularly with regard to projects with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Hanno Mussler

Editor in Business.

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Apobank did not want to comment on the reasons for Friese's departure.

According to reports, the supervisory board meeting was still ongoing late Monday afternoon.

The FAZ had already reported weeks ago about a deep rift in the board and the impending end of Friese in the Apobank.

Apobank has not yet commented on this.

Own CEO indicted

It was also previously unclear what sparked the rift.

Now there is light in the darkness.

The departure of Lüdering, about which Apobank informed after two weeks of silence with the announcement of two new board members last week, is said to have something to do with BCG.

As is well known, Lüdering did not want to extend his contract as a board member.

Rather, according to information from the FAZ, he reported to the supervisory board about a month ago that CEO Schellenberg, who had been in office since March, had a conflict of interests with BCG.

Lüdering did not want to comment on the request of the FAZ on Monday.

Apparently, Lüdering accuses Schellenberg of being too closely associated with BCG.

The Apobank boss was essentially chosen as the successor to CEO Ulrich Sommer, who was surprisingly fired at the end of 2021, by operating BCG, is an allegation that apparently cannot be clearly substantiated.

In fact, BCG had already given strategic advice to Apobank in the summer.

However, many projects would now have expired.

But Schellenberg made sure that BCG again received extensive budgets for projects, it is said.

However, there was resistance and concerns on the board of directors to the new budget in favor of the management consultants – not only from Lüdering, but also from Friese, who then felt pressured by Schellenberg.

Apobank denies this, confirmed on Monday to F.

The bank spokeswoman says: "If there are concerns about a conflict of interest, this can of course be reported in principle.

The ad is then checked in a defined control process involving an external, independent body.” It is “incorrect that there is a confirmed conflict of interest”.

She promised clarification: "The control process will be completed in the coming days, according to the experts' initial assessment, there is no factual basis for such a conflict."

Even if Schellenberg's report of a conflict of interest, which was made a few weeks ago, is not followed up quickly, Apobank should initially calm down a bit.

Friese and Lüdering, who resisted Schellenberg's course on the board, are leaving, the two new board members Thomas Runge (previously HSBC) and Sylvia Wilhelm (previously VW-Bank) should know the line.

The supervisory board, chaired by Karl-Georg Pochhammer, the deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists, acts inconspicuously, if not to say without a recognizable bite.