Frankfurt School of Finance & Management is a private, non-profit business school in Frankfurt, Germany.^[3] The school offers bachelors, masters, MBA, doctoral, and executive education programs. Frankfurt School is consistently ranked among the best business schools in the world, atttributed to the quality of undergraduate and graduate training.^[4]

The Frankfurt School of Finance & Management was founded 1957 as Bankakademie (Bank Academy), initially as a training institute for the employees of German banks.^[5] These continuing education programs remained the main focus for the first three decades. In the 1990s the pace of development accelerated. In 1989 the Bankakademie created its own publishing house, followed one year later by the foundation of the Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft (HfB), an academic institution offering degree programs. A consulting farm, International Advisory Services, was added in the 1990s as well, as was a separate department for Executive Education and tailor-made training programs for companies. Efiport, a subsidiary for e-learning and IT solutions for higher education, was created in 2001.

In 2004 HfB officially became a research institution with the rank of a university and was granted the right to award doctoral degrees.^[6] In 2007 HfB and Bankakademie were merged under the new name Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Over the last decade, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management has positioned itself as a highly international, research-driven university. Attracting students and professors from around the world, Frankfurt School has become a thought leader in emerging fields such as renewable energy finance and Blockchain technology, as well as more traditional areas of business like finance, management, and accounting.^[7]

The Frankfurt School is officially recognised as a higher education institution with the rank of a university by the German authorities. As such, it has the right to award undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees.

Frankfurt School is accredited by AACSB,^[8] EQUIS^[9] and AMBA.^[10] Together with the ESMT Berlin, ESCP Europe and the University of Mannheim, Frankfurt School is one of only four German business schools earning the Triple Crown accreditation.

The School has also been accredited by the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) and by the FIBAA. The Master of Finance and the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration hold FIBAA's Premium Seal. Its MBA in International Healthcare Management is accredited by the EFMD.

Over the last several years, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management has risen in several global business school rankings, and is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Europe.[1] ^[30]

In Europe, Frankfurt School is currently ranked 36th, according to FT's annual ranking of business schools. [2] ^[31] Frankfurt School was ranked second overall in Germany by Eduniversal, as one of three German business schools having a strong global influence. [3] ^[32] In the Quacquarelli Symonds Top MBA rankings for 2019, Frankfurt School was rated as 2nd best in Germany, and 22nd best in Europe. [4] ^[33]

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management placed 28th in the Financial Times Global Masters in Finance Pre-Experience Ranking 2017. Frankfurt School has maintained its position as the only German business school to place in the entire ranking. Frankfurt School was also ranked 41st in the world for the Financial Time's Masters in Management 2017 ranking, the highest entry for newly listed programs.

In the Executive Education 2017 ranking, Frankfurt School placed 74th worldwide and top 3 in Germany. In the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2016, the Frankfurt School MBA placed in the top 100 worldwide, and the EMBA placed 81st worldwide and 37th in Europe. The FT also publishes a list of the top 10 business schools worldwide, where Frankfurt School placed 5th.

In the Die Zeit (The Times) Employability Ranking, FS was ranked as number 1 business school and placed 3rd in the German higher education institutions rankings.

Two Frankfurt School professors represented the business school in the Handelsblatt VWL-Ranking 2015 for ‘best research performance’ placing 69th and 77th. Professor Dr. Werner Güth, who has been an Economics Senior Professor at Frankfurt School since 2015, placed 15th in the Handelsblatt VWL-Ranking 2015. Additionally, Prof. Alexander Libman placed 70th in the ‘top researchers under 40’.

In the current economy week further education rankings, Frankfurt School placed 7th in ‘business economics’ category and was ranked 3rd in the CHE-Ranking.

In 2016 Frankfurt School was ranked 6th worldwide, remaining the best business school in Germany in the Times Higher Global Employability University Ranking.

FS ranked 1st in Germany and 18th in Europe in the QS Business School Employability Ranking 2017. The Executive MBA was in this ranking for the first time and ranked 28th in Europe.

The faculty at Frankfurt School are organized in five departments (Finance, Management, Accounting, Philosophy & Law, and Economics). As of 2018, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management has more than 60 research active professors, making it one of the largest business faculties in Germany.^[21][22]

Frankfurt School officially opened their new campus in the district Nordend, Frankfurt, Germany in September 2017. The new, state-of-the-art campus was built with an investment of over €110,000,000.

Frankfurt School also has study centers in Hamburg and Munich and five offices around the world, mainly for recruitment of students and for activities related to its consulting and executive education: Nairobi, Beijing, Shanghai, Pune and São Paulo.

Frankfurt School has three subsidiaries: the publisher Frankfurt School Verlag; efiport, which specializes in IT solutions for higher education and Frankfurt School Financial Services, an asset management firm for development projects.

Frankfurt School is a highly international business school, partly due to the fact that all undergraduate students go abroad for at least one semester. Currently, there are 84 partner institutions in 33 countries. The university has two dual degree agreements for the Bachelor program International Business Administration with Bond University in Australia and with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in the United States.

In 2016, Frankfurt School, along with ESMT Berlin, HHL Leipzig, Mannheim Business School, and WHU formed the MBA Alliance, representing a collaboration of the top 5 business schools in Germany.^[23]

On March 5, 2018, the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment was announced, with Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as a founding member. The alliance was formed to promote academic research on sustainable finance, and consists of 18 leading member institutions from around the world, including Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Stanford University, Columbia University, Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and London School of Economics and Political Science, among others.^[24]

In the last 50 years over 100,000 students have graduated from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and its predecessors Bankakademie and HfB. Many of them hold important positions in German and international companies, particularly in financial institutions and management consulting companies.

Some notable alumni include: