Within the scope of the Banking Act, the notification of intent to appoint a management board member must include the material facts for an assessment of whether sufficient time is available for the performance of the related duties. Board members are required to provide detailed information on how they spend their time. It is at the discretion of the authority to decide to what extent the reported time is spent privately or professionally.

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) provides information on what information has to be provided on how a board member spends his time. It is laid down in its Guidance Notice on management board members. This is pursuant to the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG), the German Payment Services Supervision Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz – ZAG) and the German Capital Investment Code (Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch – KAGB).

This information has to be provided on the form “Details of reputation, available time and additional mandates”. As a rule, BaFin assumes that a person will only accept an appointment as a management board member if he or she considers himself or herself capable of fulfilling the time requirements associated with this activity. Accordingly, this person has to conduct an overall review of all of his or her current activities and mandates and estimate the amount of time associated with this new activity.

The following guidance notes shall be complied with in notifying BaFin of whether this person has sufficient time. All activities and mandates, including the mandate subject to notification, are to be included. The time required to perform these activities and mandates is to be estimated and disclosed to BaFin as such.

All of the management board member’s full-time and part-time professional activities must be indicated. All mandates in administrative and supervisory bodies must also be included. The amount of time required for a mandate on an advisory council must be indicated if the duties and powers of this advisory council are analogous to those of an administrative or supervisory body and are regulated by law or in the articles of association or the partnership agreement.

In the case of mandates in administrative and supervisory bodies, in addition to

• the time needed to take part in meetings,
• the time required for meeting preparation and
• postmeeting work

is to be taken into account, as is participation in committees and

• travel, where applicable.

The assessment shall also reflect the fact that an activity as a member of an administrative or supervisory body will also take up time outside the scope of regular meetings and that this time requirement may suddenly increase if the undertaking is faced with extraordinary situations.

As a rule, purely voluntary positions and activities which form part of the person’s private life need not be included. The private life of the board member might be carefully analyzed if there is any doubt about his ability to devote sufficient time to the task assigned to him.

A management board member shall report without delay any commencement and any termination of an activity as a management board member of another undertaking or as a member of the administrative or supervisory body of another undertaking. This notification is necessary so that BaFin is able to regularly assess compliance with the limitations of mandates under supervisory law as well as the need for the person to have sufficient time available. This notification obligation applies irrespective of whether or not individual mandates are included in the maximum number of mandates permitted.

Mandates on non-mandatory supervisory boards must also be indicated. Mandates on advisory councils must be indicated if the duties and powers of the advisory council are analogous to those of an administrative or supervisory body and are regulated by law or in the articles of association or the partnership agreement. It is also irrelevant for the notification obligation whether an activity is part-time or full-time in nature.

Where multiple mandates held by the management board member are considered to be a single mandate, this has to be documented by means of supporting statements or documents. In case of mandates held as a representative of the German federal government or the German federal states, the relevant basis in law has to be indicated or the relevant articles of association are to be appended. For an assessment of whether the member of the administrative or supervisory body has sufficient time available, the notification must provide relevant details, including the new mandate

A management board member shall report without delay any acquisition or disposal of a direct participating interest in an undertaking and any changes in the amount of this participating interest. A direct participating interest shall be deemed to be the holding of at least 25 per cent of the undertaking’s capital.

BaFin points out that a violation of the management board member’s notification obligations under the Banking Act and the Capital Investment Code will constitute an administrative offence which may result in an administrative fine of up to one hundred thousand euros. Violation of the notification requirement means failing to make a notification or making such notification incorrectly, incompletely or not in due time.