Federal Association of German Money and Valuable Services
The Federal Association of German Money and Value Services e. V. (BDGW) emerged in 1989 from the merger of the Association of Money and Valuables Transport Companies and the Federal Association for Security Transports (BFS). The association, based in Frankfurt am Main , currently has 36 regular member companies with 88 branches and 34 extraordinary member companies with a focus on money and value.
Economical meaning
In total, the regular member companies have more than 2,500 armored cash-in- transit vehicles and employ around 11,000 people in the area of “money and value”. Two thirds of them work in the transport of money and valuables and one third in money processing. The turnover of the entire branch is currently around 500 million euros per year. The BDGW basically represents the interests of its member companies vis-à-vis federal and state ministries, authorities, the Deutsche Bundesbank, other associations, in particular the German Trade Association (HDE) and the German Credit Industry (ZKA), as well as insurers. The BDGW guarantees an exchange of experiences in all technical and economic questions on the subject of money and value.
Employers' association
In 2005 it developed from a pure business association to a business and employers association. Here the BDGW has a social partner function. It concludes regional and supra-regional collective agreements on minimum working conditions for employees in the sector with the unions. The collective agreements have so far only been binding for the member companies of the BDGW. In June 2015, the Federal Cabinet decided that minimum wages should be generally binding nationwide for all employees in the field of monetary and value-added services, including those who were not yet bound by collective bargaining agreements.
Security standards
In 2006 the association developed a 5-level safety standard. In accordance with the 10-point catalog presented in November 2006, the first step was to significantly tighten the internal requirements for member companies and potential member companies. For this purpose, the classic "Security Check 1", which mainly deals with structural and technical requirements and the execution of money and valuables transport, was put on a new basis. This security check 1 has now been supplemented by a "security check 2", which is dedicated to the regularity of the accounting processes including the cash flows of customer funds. At the same time, the BDGW has developed a sustainable, comprehensive verification system for money and value service providers with the involvement of external auditors or an external auditing company. Within twelve months, the BDGW achieved the goal of maintaining a BDGW security standard together with the customer associations and insurers, which will be effective not only for 2007, but also for all money and value service providers in the future. The BDGW has implemented demanding control and review processes that recur every year and published the audited companies on the BDGW website. This enabled the tightening of the verification mechanisms for around 95% of market participants in the money and value area to be made binding within a short time for greater security for customers and in the industry.