Friedrich von Metzler turns 65

Friedrich von Metzler, one of the ten partners who run B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. KGaA, the oldest private bank in Germany still owned by the founding family, celebrates his 65th birthday on April 23, 2008. He is one of the bank’s three personally liable partners and represents the eleventh generation of the founding family.

Friedrich von Metzler was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1943 and went to school in Frankfurt am Main. From 1964, when he completed his training as an export clerk, he worked for several foreign banks, including Schroder Wagg in London, Citibank, Smith Barney and Brown Brothers Harriman in New York and Hottinguer & Cie in Paris. He also spent a year working for Deutsche Bank in Duesseldorf before joining the family bank in Frankfurt in 1969. Fresh from their insight into banking in other countries, Friedrich von Metzler and his cousin Christoph von Metzler saw investment banking as the way forward. They became members of the bank’s management in 1971 and set about repositioning it as a modern investment bank with a systematic focus on off-balance-sheet operations, principally investment and asset management activities. In their view, deposits and lending business should be the domain of larger banks. Since then, Metzler Bank has concentrated entirely on areas of business where it can be at least as good – or better – than the strongest players, regardless of its size.

Friedrich von Metzler sees his role as a private banker as providing advisory services rather than selling financial products. Thanks to this business model, Metzler Bank has been far less badly affected than other banks by the present global financial crisis. Metzler does not deal in financial instruments that are high-risk or lack transparency, “and especially not in sub-prime loans or any of those complicated structured certificates,” as Friedrich von Metzler puts it.
Friedrich von Metzler is one of the most ardent supporters of Frankfurt as a financial centre. He became a member of the Board of Management of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1986 and held the position of Chairman for four years from 1989. In this function, he played a central role in the transformation of the Frankfurt exchange into Deutsche Boerse AG. From 1990 until 1993 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Boerse AG and he still has seats on the Supervisory Boards of Deutsche Boerse and DWS Investment and acts as an advisor to Deutsche Bank, Eurohypo and Fraport. He is also a member of the Exchange Council of Eurex Germany and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

As well as being a successful private banker, Friedrich von Metzler is a prime mover and “instigator” of social and cultural projects. He has often stressed that this would not be possible without a profitable bank in the background. He is particularly committed to bringing people together, generating their enthusiasm for ideas and encouraging them to take practical action. Together with his wife Sylvia, in 1998 he founded the Albert und Barbara von Metzler Foundation - named after his father and sister - which supports social projects throughout Germany.

Friedrich von Metzler is a member of the Executive Board of Frankfurt’s Buergerhospital, the Arts and Crafts Society and the Business History Society. He is also a member of the advisory boards of the Senckenberg Nature Research Society and the German literature research institute Freies Deutsches Hochstift, and deputy chairman of the administration of the Senckenberg Foundation.

Friedrich von Metzler was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Cross of Merit, First Class, in 2003 in recognition of his social commitment and became the 26th Honorary Citizen of the City of Frankfurt in 2004.

Contact:

Joerg-Matthias Butzlaff
Fon: (+49 69) 21 04-49 75
E-Mail: MButzlaff@metzler.com