0800 2 100 500: BaFin’s consumer helpline

You can call our helpline free of charge on 0800 2 100 500 from Germany, or +49 228 299 70 299 from abroad. Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Your questions will be answered by the staff at the consumer helpline in Rostock commissioned by BaFin to handle consumer enquiries.

Consumer helpline – how can we help you?

Please note that BaFin’s staff are only allowed to answer general questions over the telephone.

We can help, for example, by providing information on:

• general issues concerning consumer protection;
• problems with banks, insurers, asset management companies or financial services providers;
• general questions regarding financial products;
• how to file a complaint (complaints procedure);
• how to find out what stage your complaint about a credit institution or insurance company has reached in the complaints procedure;
• questions regarding authorisations of companies or credit institutions and
• questions about BaFin and its duties.

BaFin does not provide legal advice or advice concerning your personal financial situation.

The consumer helpline staff are also unable to answer questions about companies which do not have authorisation from BaFin to conduct their business activities. On our database of companies, you can find out whether a company has the required authorisation from BaFin.

However, please let us know if you have reason to believe that a company is operating without the required authorisation. BaFin is grateful for any information you can provide about companies that are or might be violating supervisory provisions by operating without the required authorisation from BaFin. Please send your submissions by fax or e-mail to:

Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht
Abteilung IF
Graurheindorfer Straße 108
53117 Bonn
Fax: + 49 (0)228 4108-1550
e-mail: if@bafin.de

If, however, you have specific knowledge, information or other such data on the internal affairs of a certain company and would like to pass this on anonymously because, for example, you are an employee or distribution partner of that company and therefore wish to conceal your identity, please get in touch with our contact point for whistleblowers. If you are a market participant – e.g. an insider, short seller or financial market expert – and would like to pass on important information to BaFin (non-anonymised), please get in touch with the Market Contact Group (MCG).

Please get in touch with BaFin’s contact point for whistleblowers if you have reason to believe that someone has violated the prohibition of market manipulation or insider trading.

We wish to offer our services to consumers in a spirit of mutual respect. Any conversations involving in particular insults, vulgarities or degrading statements will be immediately ended.

Co-browsing

In addition to providing information over the telephone, BaFin also offers a co-browsing service. By means of co-browsing, you and your consumer helpline advisor can navigate websites together while communicating in real time via the internet. Have the advisor guide you through the pages of a website or explain the structure of a database.

If you are interested in using the co-browsing service, call our consumer helpline on 0800 2 100 500. The advisor will offer you a co-browsing session if it helps you to gain additional information during the phone call. You are also welcome to ask our advisors to start a co-browsing session with you if you want to have information explained to you on the websites being viewed.

The advisor will give you an individually generated session code which you need in order to start the co-browsing session. Once the connection has been established, a virtual browser will open up in both your browser window and that of your advisor's. Information can be shared exclusively within the space of this browser window. The advisor has no access to your computer. When internet pages are called up using co-browsing technology, the pages are merely mirrored to you and your advisor.

Please also note the information on data protection and processing (information only available in German).

Sign language phone service and service for people with hearing impairments

The best way to contact BaFin’s consumer helpline if you have a hearing impairment is to use our sign language phone service, which is based on online video telephony (please note that the login page and the sign language phone service are only available in German). This is a simple and direct way for you to contact us without having to download additional software. All you need is a stationary or mobile internet terminal (computer, tablet or smartphone) and unlimited/unrestricted access to the internet. Our hearing impaired advisors will be happy to answer your questions using sign language. The sign language phone service can be contacted Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm.

You can also submit your request to BaFin using an online form (only available in German).

The public administration's customer service number (Behördenrufnummer) 115 for contacting federal, state and local authorities

If you do not have the telephone number you need at hand, simply dial 115. The public administration’s customer service number can be used for contacting not only BaFin but all public administration offices in Germany, including nearly 90 authorities and institutions as well as numerous state and local authorities or associations.

The public administration’s customer service number is available Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm. Please note that only authorities from regions currently taking part in this service can be contacted via 115.

Calls to the public administration’s customer service number are subject to a charge. Calls from a German landline to 115 are usually charged at the local rate or may even be covered by your flat rate. For more information on the applicable charges, please refer to the 115 website.

If you have a hearing impairment, you can use the 115 sign language phone service. Specially trained staff will answer your questions in sign language (service only available in German).