Alumni celebrating the 10th anniversary of the CIBP LINK training programme

The celebration of the 10 years of CIBP LINK started with the kick-off of the 5th CIBP LINK ALUMNI DAYS.

Mr Frank Westhoff, Member of the DZ BANK AG Board of Managing Directors and Member of the CIBP Executive and the Presidential Committee, had the honor to open the event with a key-note speech.

Mr. Westhoff opened his speech, underlining that "the programme anniversary shows that international exchanges in the cooeprative world are still as important as ever and attract attention even in times of tight resources and high pressure to achieve greater efficiency".

After an overview on the situation in Germany with a specific focus on the merge between DZ Bank and WGZ. He indicated which are the most important challenges for the future of the banking business model: digitalization; low interest-rate environment and new regulation.

In particular, Mr. Westhoff he stressed out that "digitalization, which more than any other development means a radical change for our sector. We have tightened our strategy and are increasingly drawing from the growth potential of an organization of 30 milion customers, but to face this challenges he also reminded that "a big advantage of the CIBP LINK Programme is that particpants are taking a close look at these issues of the future and considering them from various perspectives. good ideas often emerge when heterogeneity meets with openness".

At the end Mr Westhoff has reaffirmed his strongly convinction that "banks will remain indispensable in future, we will learn to capitalise on well-understood innovations. Banks perform important tasks of economic transformation, which no new player is able, or willin so it seems, to take on in their entirety".

This gathering also gave the opportunity to managers coming from different member banks to discuss hot current topics on Management & Organization, Digitalization & FinTechs and Future Business Models in a workshop frame.

Those discussion points were selected by the Alumni as being the most relevant topics for their business to be even more innovative. At the end of the day, more than 40 Alumni have shared their insights and ideas for the future of the cooperative banking model in a plenary session.

This great event brings important reflection opportunities for CIBP members managers across different cultures and having rich expertise in the banking sectors.