Allfinanz
Allfinanz describes the cooperation of legally independent companies in the financial sector such as financial service providers , credit institutions ( banks , cooperative banks , savings banks , building societies ), insurers and investment companies as well as the result of this process. Internationally, the term bancassurance ( French bancassurance , bank insurance ) is used for this, in some literature sources the spelling bankassurance can also be found .
General
These are companies in the financial sector that do not limit themselves to the financial products peculiar to them (such as banking ), but offer a wide range of financial services themselves, in cooperation with others or through subsidiaries . They are often grouped together as financial conglomerates . One can therefore differentiate between all-financial providers , all-financial intermediaries and all-financial advisors . Bancassurance providers are cooperations between the aforementioned financial service providers for the purpose of a coordinated product range for the entire need for financial services from a single source. The cooperation can take place within the framework of a group of companies or on a contractual basis between the legally independent financial service providers. Bancassurance brokers are financial brokers who include products from various, independent providers with the aim of being able to cover the entire need for financial services in their brokerage offer. Bancassurance advisors are usually also intermediaries; only in the case of insurance consultants is it legally clear that they only act in an advisory capacity on behalf of the customer without mediating themselves. Allfinanz always includes a wide range of financial services. Allfinanz developed from the beginning of the 1970s.
development
The various financial services sectors developed historically separately. For security reasons, the statutory provisions required that banking and savings bank business, building society business , insurance business and investment business be carried out by legally separate companies. Only recently, around the 1970s, has there been more and more cooperation between companies in various industries on the part of providers through group formation or contractual cooperation. For a long time, legal obstacles stood in the way of this in many countries. However, there has been close cooperation in mediation for a long time. Banks and savings banks in particular brokered products from insurers, building societies and investment companies very early on. The process developed a particular dynamic when insurance brokers also systematically brokered other financial service products.
All-finance products are offered for both private and institutional investors.
Economic basics
The advantages of allfinanz exist on the customer and provider side.
On the customer side, a holistic solution for the need for financial services is to be achieved. Both the entire requirement should be completely covered and overlapping of the parts still offered by legally independent companies should be avoided, as this would lead to unnecessary costs.
On the provider or broker side, the company's own expertise in the field of financial services should be used as comprehensively as possible in order to be able to derive maximum benefit from the customer relationship. In addition, a well-connected customer relationship is considered more stable. Customers who still have relationships with other financial alliances are always at the risk of being poached. In particular, long-term contracts such as loans, in particular building loans, for example from building societies, life and health insurance companies, create lasting customer relationships.
However, in practice, for reasons of cost, these ideal ratios are often not achieved. A holistic solution would require an intensive study of the needs of customers, who are mostly not able to determine their needs themselves. Consumer advocates often complain that this investigation is not carried out for cost reasons, but above all due to the intermediaries' lack of knowledge. Ultimately, the result would not be determined by the need, but by the commission interests of the agent or profit interests of the provider. This would leave gaps and conclude unnecessary contracts. Long-term contracts would be preferred to secure customer relationships. A precise coordination of the products between the legally independent providers is often not easy and is therefore sometimes incomplete, so that there is overlap, which burden the customer with unnecessary costs.
Legal issues
The historically caused, legally justified fragmentation of financial services could only be alleviated slowly. Originally, even corporate groups between insurers and banks were banned in the USA. This only ended when Citigroup was founded in 1998. In Great Britain, the model of the universal bank , which is allowed to issue loans and accept customer money, was unknown for a long time, so that even the banking system there was fragmented.
In Germany there has long been close cooperation between the savings banks and public insurance companies ( Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe ). The cooperative banks have founded their own insurer, R + V Versicherung . Later, large banking groups and insurance groups each bought insurers or banks, so that today there are comprehensive all-finance groups. There are also close connections to investment companies and building societies. This interdependence was taken into account legally by the fact that in 2002 the previously separate supervisory authorities for insurers, credit institutions and stock market transactions were transferred to a joint institution, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority . However, the business concerned must continue to be operated by legally independent companies (credit institutions, building societies, insurers and investment companies). Separate supervisory laws still apply to the relevant transactions. In the meantime, however, control over the owners has also been adopted in the supervisory laws in order to do justice to the interdependencies between different companies in groups. The Financial Conglomerate Supervision Act has been regulating the financial market supervision of financial conglomerates such as the Allianz SE Group since July 2013 .
See also
- Investment advice
- General financial literacy
- Financial advisor
- Financial advice
- Financial distribution
literature
- Literature on Allfinanz in the catalog of the German National Library
- Gilbert Gornig, Frank Reinhardt: The independent allfinanz sales - taking into account hierarchical sales systems. Peter Lang-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2004, ISBN 3631395558 .
- Andre Eschler: Bancassurance - methods of increasing efficiency and selected optimization models . GRIN-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-640-84359-6 .
