Dr. Bernhard Fuhrmann has been a Board Member at Hamburg-based Varengold Bank AG since 2013. He is responsible for Risk, Finance, Compliance and all other back office functions. Together with Frank Otten, Bernhard determines the overall strategy of Varengold Bank, which centres on making Varengold a preferred partner of fintechs and the bank of choice for the marketplace lending industry. Before joining Varengold Bank AG in 2013, Bernhard held executive positions at various other financial institutions, including Chief Operating Officer Commercial Real Estate at Commerzbank AG, Head of Finance at Eurohypo AG, and Head of Regulatory Reporting at Deutsche Bank AG. At the latter, he also headed the project for listing Deutsche Bank at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Born 1963, Bernhard first completed industrial engineering studies at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt before moving on to job-integrated business economics studies at Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität and Bayerische Vereinsbank AG in Munich. In 1992, he earned a Ph.D. in business economics.
Panel
The German market for alternative lending has been slower to grow over the past five years compared with the UK, France and other European countries. More lending platforms, however, are entering the market and a growing number of investors are becoming interested in German loans.