Forum on "White-collar Crime and the Capital Market"

On 15 and 16 November 2016, BaFin hosted its annual forum on "White-Collar Crime and the Capital Market" for the 13th time. The objective of the forum is assist in combating white-collar crime even more effectively. The principal topics under discussion this time were market manipulation, cybercriminality and unauthorised transactions by pawn shops. The participants consisted of 450 police officers, judges, public prosecutors as well as employees of the Deutsche Bundesbank, stock exchange supervisory authorities, trading surveillance offices of stock exchanges and foreign supervisory authorities. The participants also had the opportunity to attend seminars, such as those on the Market Abuse Regulation (Marktmissbrauchsverordnung) and on price determination on the stock exchanges.

Consumer protection forum

The central question addressed by BaFin's fourth consumer protection forum on 29 November 2016 was how to structure consumer protection in the financial industry so as to cover consumers as a whole and not just individual consumers. Representatives of ministries and consumer protection organisations, industry and German and European supervisory authorities discussed this issue in the German National Library in Frankfurt. The main topics were the implementation in practice of collective consumer protection, which is one of BaFin's responsibilities, fintech companies and product regulation.

"BaFin-Tech" conference on fintech companies

On 28 June 2016, BaFin hosted its "BaFin-Tech" conference on fintech companies for founders and representatives of undertakings in the financial sector. The 200 participants discussed current supervisory topics and business models in panel discussions together with representatives of the supervisory authorities, federal ministries and academia. Participants were also able to attend workshops on crowdfunding, alternative payment services, robo advice and blockchain technologies.

Information for investors

In April 2016, BaFin took part in the "Invest" trade fair in Stuttgart, providing information for investors. Talks given by BaFin representatives enabled investors to learn about market manipulation and discover whether retail derivative instruments are too risky for consumers, among other topics.

BaFin also gave members of the public the opportunity to put their questions in one-on-one discussions with its representatives at the Börsentage in Berlin, Dresden, Munich and Hamburg as well as at the Federal Ministry of Finance's open house in Berlin.