Students of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) celebrated their victory at the Postbank Finance Award – Germany's most highly endowed university prize in the field of banking and finance. The team can look forward to receiving €50,000 in prize money. The 13th Finance Award was themed "Megatrend Digitalization: How Information Technologies and Social Media Influence Banks' Business Models."
The team from the Chair of Business Information Systems at the Technical University of Munich, consisting of Gabriela Galic, Christian Olenberger, Maximilian Siegert, Andreas Sperling and Florian Zyprian, convinced the jury with a work that was awarded the title “Learning to love FinTechs” carries.
Together with their lecturer Dr. Markus Böhm, the students from the Technical University of Munich comprehensively presented, analyzed, and systematized the market for financial technology companies (FinTechs). They examined the FinTechs' business models for their specific strengths and weaknesses and related them to the business model of a typical German universal bank.
They were able to identify how FinTechs can compete with, cooperate with, or complement banks. They also calculated the impact of such relationships on the model bank's value flow networks. From this, the team ultimately derived compelling recommendations for the actions of universal banks.
Opportunities of digitalization
“The students’ work impressively demonstrates how important it is for Postbank to fully utilize the opportunities offered by digitalization,”
said Frank Strauss, CEO of Postbank and patron of the award.
"It's not enough for us to offer our customers digitalized products and services at the highest technical level. Rather, they expect services from us that are only possible through personal contact. In addition to intelligent technologies, digitalization can also provide us with the cost advantages and time savings necessary to be personally available to our customers where they really need us."
The second prize, endowed with €25,000, went to the University of Regensburg. Students from the University of Bayreuth received the third prize and €15,000. The special prize, endowed with €20,000, for a work with a particularly convincing application orientation, went to Weserbergland University of Applied Sciences.
A total of 25 student teams from 25 universities and colleges in Germany participated in the competition. The winners were selected by a nine-member jury from academia and industry, chaired by Prof. Dr. Erik Theissen of the University of Mannheim.
