3 Questions to Corinna Egerer, Founder and Managing Director of Frankfurt Digital Finance

Corinna Egerer: Since our premiere in 2020, we have firmly established ourselves in the event calendar as the “meeting point for those shaping the future” of the European financial industry. Frankfurt Digital Finance focuses in particular on “modern” finance topics and is not just another traditional banking format.

We see ourselves as a platform conference that connects Europe’s financial industry. Firstly, we bring together the various players, i.e. executives from traditional financial institutions and service providers, investors, fintech entrepreneurs, professors and public decision-makers. Secondly, we deal with the most important and current future topics of the industry and thirdly, we bring representatives of other European financial hubs to Frankfurt – so for two days we are a small reflection of a European ecosystem!

Over the years, the conference has not only grown quantitatively, i.e. in terms of the number of topics, speakers and participants, but above all in European terms. We are seeing an increasingly international field of participants year after year. And we continue to grow and are delighted that the upcoming conference will now even take place over two days, extended by the “European Fintech Day”. This is where we bring exciting fintechs from all over Europe to the interface with banks, other cooperation partners and investors.

Frankfurt as an open and international city in the centre of Europe and the strong financial centre with its leading international banks, the most important European institutions and the wider, first-class financial community are an indispensable basis for such a conference.

The financial sector is changing and digital finance is playing an increasingly important role in this. Which key topics will be covered at the conference and which of them do you consider to have the greatest potential for transformation?

Frankfurt Digital Finance stands for various transformation topics: Sustainability/ESG, digitalisation/technology topics such as artificial intelligence including GenAI and open finance & payment. Trend topics relating to tokenisation, crypto and digital assets are also central. Also on the agenda is the transformation of the financial industry as a whole with regard to the changing role of traditional banks and newer market players/fintechs and the resulting challenges in regulation and supervision.

This year, we are also focussing on Europe with the topics of the “Digital Euro” and the “European Capital Markets Union”; the latter is the basis for ensuring that we as a continent can finance the necessary transformation projects. Fintech investment, i.e. the provision of the necessary financing chain for young companies, is also always a focus topic for us. This year, Frankfurt Digital Finance will once again be framed by two unicorn founders with their very personal entrepreneurial stories: the opening keynote will be given by Eric Demuth, founder of Bitpanda, and the closing keynote by Valentin Stalf, founder of N26.

The greatest potential for transformation? In my view, it’s not just ONE topic, but the interplay between the various major and new topics. My advice on this: If you come to Frankfurt Digital Finance, you will certainly be able to get an even better idea of which parts are important and will continue to grow.

This year for the first time there will be a European FinTech Day at Frankfurt Digital Finance. Could you explain the reasons for this expansion and give us a brief insight into the programme?

The European Fintech Day takes place for two reasons: Firstly, we had so many participants last year that we realised we had to grow! Secondly, there was no such event in Frankfurt that brings together fintechs from Europe with other stakeholders, i.e. banks, co-innovation partners and VC investors.

This new event will bring together first-class fintechs from various sectors, representing Europe’s leading digital financial centres. The aim is to create opportunities for diverse collaboration approaches in various formats. After an opening panel, which will highlight the various collaboration scenarios with fintechs, “ThePitch” will take centre stage: here, international fintechs from the areas of ESG, GenAI, digital assets and open finance & payment will present themselves.

In another format, “MeetTheCEO”, there is the opportunity for intensive dialogue with the founders and CEOs of ScaleUps, i.e. more mature fintechs. 4 MasterClasses on PR and media relations, fundraising and regulatory changes round off the programme. Frankfurt Digital Finance 2024 will end with the Closing Keynote on 8 February at 2 pm.