Topic Authorisation requirements Exemption from the authorisation requirement
Article from BaFin's 2017 annual report
In 2017, BaFin granted 6 undertakings an initial exemption from the authorisation requirement (previous year: 15; see info box "Exemption"). BaFin had exempted a total of 358 institutions by the end of 2017.
Exemption
Section 2 (4) of the Banking Act authorises BaFin, in particular exceptional circumstances, to exempt, on a one-off basis, undertakings that conduct banking business or provide financial services that are auxiliary or ancillary to their core business, which is otherwise not related to the financial markets, from the authorisation requirement and a catalogue of requirements specified by law, which constitutes the ongoing solvency supervision under the Banking Act. In practice, this kind of exemption is only granted on application. However, not every business model is eligible. The authorisation requirement for a business legally classified as banking business or a financial service is the rule, and BaFin may only waive this requirement at its due discretion in exceptional circumstances. For this reason, BaFin makes use of this authorisation with caution. Each time an exemption is granted, it will only apply to a very narrow business segment, which BaFin has found not to require supervision.
Exemptions are also possible for institutions domiciled abroad that wish to conduct their business in Germany on a cross-border basis. This requires that, according to BaFin's assessment, such institutions are subject to equivalent supervision in their respective home country. BaFin granted 1 such exemption in the year under review (previous year: 2).
