BaFin
| Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht | |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1 May 2002 |
| Jurisdiction | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Headquarters | Bonn and Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Employees | 2,535 (31 December 2014) |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | http://www.bafin.de/ |
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (German: ) better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It is an independent federal institution with headquarters in Bonn and Frankfurt and falls under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Finance (Germany). BaFin supervises about 2,700 banks, 800 financial services institutions and over 700 insurance undertakings.
BaFin was formed on 1 May 2002 with the passing of the Financial Services and integration Act (German: Gesetz über die integrierte Finanzaufsicht (FinDAG)) on 22 April 2002. The aim of this legislation was to create one integrated financial regulator that covered all financial markets. BaFin was created by the merger of the three supervisory agencies, the Federal Banking Supervisory Office (German: Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Kreditwesen (BAKred)), the Federal Supervisory Office for the Securities Trading (German: Bundesaufsichtsamt für den Wertpapierhandel (BAWe)), and the Federal Insurance Supervisory Office (German: Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Versicherungswesen (BAV)).
This meant there was uniform national supervision of banks, credit institutions, insurance companies, financial service companies, brokers and . This model was designed to provide transparency and manageability and to make sure all financial activity was regulated.
In 2003 changes to the Banking Act (KWG) gave BaFin further responsibility to monitor the credit worthiness of financial institutions and to collect detailed information from those institutions. The aim was to increase customer protection and the reputation of the financial system. It shares responsibility here with the Bundesbank. As of 2015, BaFin is in transition, after major responsibilities for banking supervision shifted to the purview of the European Central Bank in November 2014.
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