The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) supervises credit institutions, financial and payment service providers, insurers, pension funds, capital investment companies and securities trading.
The aim is to ensure the operation, stability and integrity of the German financial market. Bank customers, policyholders and investors should be able to trust the financial system, which is why BaFin ensures that market participants observe the relevant laws.
BaFin is a public-law institution which acquires its financing exclusively from fees and charges payable by the institutes and companies supervised and is therefore independent of the federal budget.
Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Bafin: About Us, Bonn and Frankfurt am Main, May 2018.