Bundestag: Financial industry spends millions on political lobbying

Banks, insurance companies and the fund industry spend millions to influence laws in the Bundestag with hundreds of lobbyists. According to an evaluation by the citizens’ movement Finanzwende, no other industry is as strongly represented among the 100 most financially powerful lobby actors as the financial sector. This is evident from the Bundestag’s publicly accessible lobby register, the association explained.

Accordingly, ten of the one hundred lobbying actors with the largest budgets are banks, insurance companies and investment companies. Together they would have an annual lobbying expenditure of almost 40 million euros and 442 lobbyists named in the register. The car lobby, which is traditionally strong in Germany, is only represented in the top 100 with six entries and a lobby budget of almost 18 million euros, while the chemical lobby has five entries and around 21 million euros spent on maintaining contacts and trying to influence politics.

New rules for the lobby register

The lobby register has been kept on the German Bundestag website since 2022. It is intended to make visible who influences political decisions and legislation. Professional stakeholders must register there. They must provide information about, among other things, their clients and subject areas as well as the human and financial costs of their lobbying activities in the Bundestag and the Federal Government. You are obliged to adhere to a specified code of conduct.

Since March 2024, they have also had to indicate which specific legislative proposal they want to influence. They should also upload key points of their demands to the lobby register. Lobbyists now also have to state if they do not represent the interests of their actual client, but rather those of a third party. And if elected officials switch to the lobbyist camp, they must disclose current and previous positions and mandates.

Financial turnaround praises transparency gain

There are currently almost 6,000 companies, associations, organizations, networks, individuals and others registered in the register. The number of named employees who directly represent interests is more than 27,000.

The tightening of reporting requirements has led to a “massive gain in transparency,” explained Finanzwende. “The improved lobby register finally makes more visible what used to take place in secret. We see the range of influence exerted by the financial lobby and unfortunately also how successful it is,” said managing director Daniel Mittler.

Certain changes from politics to the financial lobby are now more visible, the association believes. Lobbyists must now state whether they have worked in the Bundestag, the government or the federal administration in the last five years. Well-known ex-politicians or employees of members of parliament are worth gold to the financial lobby with their insider knowledge of the processes in ministries and the Bundestag.

Criticism of “constant bombardment” of MPs

According to the evaluation, the leader in lobby spending is still the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV). “Nobody spends more money across all sectors to influence the Bundestag and the federal government than the umbrella organization of insurers,” says Finanzwende. The association represents the interests of insurance companies and invests around 15 million euros annually. 93 named lobbyists pulled the strings for the GDV and took part in 86 laws and regulations from March to November.

“Anyone who has as many resources as the financial lobby can support dozens of political processes at the same time. The lobby register shows the constant bombardment of MPs,” explained Mittler. “It is completely clear that civil society organizations cannot make a comparable effort.”

The citizens’ movement Finanzwende, which evaluated the industry’s lobbying work, is also registered as a lobbyist. A budget of 130,000 to 140,000 euros and twelve stakeholders are specified. Finanzwende therefore wrote statements on three political projects, including the Capital Markets Union.