As of: March 25, 2024, 2:37 p.m
By: Corinna Maier, Sebastian Hölzle
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Marion Höllinger in front of the HypoVereinsbank Tower, which has shaped Munich's cityscape like no other building since the early 1980s.
The executive suite is on the 22nd floor.
Photo: Jens Harmann © Jens Harmann
Is Germany in crisis?
Marion Höllinger, head of HypoVereinsbank, talks in an interview about the state of the German economy - and the bank branches of the future.
Munich – Marion Höllinger began her career in Eggenfelden, Lower Bavaria.
In 1991 as a trainee at HypoVereinsbank.
She still works at the bank today, now as a spokeswoman for the management.
She has been in this position for over a year.
We spoke to her about the state of the German economy, the real estate market and the bank branches of the future.
How is the German economy doing? Are we in a temporary crisis or is Germany structurally going downhill?
I would put it differently: Germany is in the middle of a transformation.
I think that is a more accurate description of the current situation.
Transformation from where to where?
Essentially there are two strands.
On the one hand, there is digitalization.
Since more and more older people are leaving the workforce as younger people are moving in, companies have no choice but to digitalize their processes.
The second strand of transformation is the green transformation.
Here too, companies are forced to deal with the issue.
What are the consequences?
Compared to other European countries, Germany is more industrial and export-oriented.
Therefore, transformation in Germany is more difficult than in other countries.
But Germany is definitely not the sick man of Europe, even if we hear and read that every now and then.
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Why are you so sure about that?
There are two reasons for this: We currently have record employment of 46 million people.
This suggests that we are in a phase of transformation and not a crisis.
Secondly, the unemployment rate is extremely low, which is also not consistent with a crisis.
Nevertheless, the transformation is a challenging phase for the German economy.
Nevertheless, we still have a very, very innovative medium-sized company in Germany and we continue to see strong balance sheets.
Is there a desire for negativity in Germany?
In any case, the mood we are currently perceiving on the market is worse than the actual situation.
But I don't want to sugarcoat it either, because the transformation is ambitious.
From feedback from our medium-sized customers, we know that two central issues are currently depressing the mood: Firstly, there is a lack of urgently needed public investment in infrastructure in Germany.
Secondly, medium-sized businesses urgently need a reduction in bureaucracy.
How do you explain why so little is happening in terms of public investment?
Without being involved in the decision-making processes, I believe the following: It is not a lack of knowledge, it is a lack of courage to make a decision.
However, there could be a slight boost in investments in the autumn if - as is generally expected - interest rates decline slightly.
This should not only lead to higher private investments, but thanks to higher tax revenues, politicians would also have more leeway to make government investments.
Let's assume that interest rates actually go down slightly in the fall: What consequences would that have on the German real estate market?
We have seen in private housing construction: many construction projects have been postponed due to increased interest rates.
But now, given the expected interest rate cuts, we feel that the market is moving a bit again.
In concrete terms, this means that customers are thinking about what they have to do when construction begins in the fall.
Is this also a good time window for buying an existing property? Interest rates usually react faster than prices on the real estate market. And if interest rates fall in the fall and real estate prices continue to plummet, that could be a good time to buy.
That's the way it is.
That's exactly the reason why many are now preparing to buy in the fall.
You want to take advantage of this opportunity.
We are also seeing movement among professional investors.
How is HypoVereinsbank now positioned on the market? What role do private customers play, what role do corporate customers play?
Basically, it is important to know: As HypoVereinsbank, we cover the entire customer clientele on the German market - from private customers to wealthy customers through to small businesses, medium-sized companies and larger companies.
But medium-sized companies are and remain our backbone; we are the best medium-sized bank in Germany.
Other institutes also claim this.
That may be so, but it really is us.
And our customers confirm this to us again and again.
Around 70 percent of our entire business comes from medium-sized companies.
In addition, thanks to our international network, we are an important partner for large companies.
We have our own branches in Paris and New York, but of course we also benefit greatly from our membership of UniCredit.
As part of UniCredit, HypoVereinsbank was converted from a stock corporation into a GmbH. Why?
This is easy to explain: the conversion saves us an enormous amount of bureaucracy.
The Stock Corporation Act was written primarily for listed companies with many shareholders.
As HypoVereinsbank, we only had a single shareholder, UniCredit, for 18 years - but all the requirements of stock corporation law applied to us, for example the holding of an annual general meeting.
Does that mean that HVB was not demoted within the group, as had been speculated?
No.
This formality hasn't changed anything for us, and certainly not for our customers.
We can continue to position ourselves strategically in the German market as before.
And one thing should not be forgotten: within the UniCredit Group, we are the second largest bank in the group after the Italian UniCredit.
25 percent of the entire group's earnings come from HypoVereinsbank.
And Milan doesn't interfere with your strategy?
No.
The strategy is written here in Germany; within the group, each bank does this for its respective market - within the framework of common compliance and risk standards.
In the end, the group result is the sum of the results of 13 successful banks in their respective countries.
In Germany, HVB has closed a number of branches in recent years. Is this process still going on? How important is your local presence to you?
Presence on site is exactly the right keyword: because this topic will become increasingly important in the future.
The only question is: what does this presence actually look like?
And what is your answer?
Like every supermarket or drugstore chain, we take a close look at our locations every year.
We look at how the locations are used and what services our customers demand.
It is therefore possible that one or other location will no longer be needed in the future.
But at the same time there will also be locations that we will open.
Is this already happening?
Yes, for example we have opened new locations in Dortmund and Bremen.
But they look different than a classic bank branch.
That means?
Two years ago we introduced a branch type in which we only offer advice.
Such branches are not necessarily located on the ground floor, as was previously the case with a bank.
Such a branch could just as easily be on the second floor.
Because we observe the following: On-site customer advice is still in great demand.
However, our customers are increasingly doing their entire day-to-day payment transactions online - Covid has accelerated the whole thing.
Are you also planning such consultant branches in the Munich region?
Munich is positioned somewhat differently, as we traditionally have a comparatively dense branch network here; we currently have more than 20 locations here.
As more banking transactions move online, problems with cybercrime and online fraud are likely to increase. How do you deal with that?
The topic is actually becoming more and more relevant.
We have a team that specifically supports our corporate customers when they are confronted with the issue of cybercrime.
This may surprise some, but today it is no longer just the typical bankers who work at a bank, but also an increasing number of IT specialists.
And to recognize fraud patterns, we are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, the topic of IT security can often also be about very mundane things: For example, we have to ensure that our customers use secure passwords for online banking and not the number sequence “12345”.
How do you manage to switch off after a strenuous day in the HVB Tower?
The answer is simple: I run every day.
This is the best compensation after a strenuous day.
Interview: Corinna Maier and Sebastian Hölzle