The starting point for the foundation of Baader Bank was the admission of Uto Baader, the bank's founder, to the stock exchange as a stockbroker in July 1983.[4] He initially managed the order books of three shares, the North American stocks of AT&T Corporation, COMSAT and Westinghouse Electric Corporation.[4] With the issuance support of DB-Soft AG, in 1993, Baader expanded its business activities beyond just order book management towards personal support for customers, which later developed into separate business divisions.[5] The acquisition of the listed Ballmaier & Schultz Wertpapier AG and the merger in 1998 gave rise to Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG. Baader Bank was thus admitted to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.[3][6]
At the beginning of the 2000s, Baader Bank increased the frequency with which it purchased order books, further expanding order book management in German equities. It integrated the Stuttgart-based brokerage firm KST in 2000, Eckes Effektenhandel AG (Frankfurt) in 2001, and German Brokers (Frankfurt) in 2002.[7] Baader also acquired a stake in Heins & Seitz Capital Management GmbH (Munich) at the end of 2002.[8] In 2003, the order books of Gebhard & Schuster (Munich), the Frankfurt brokers Bargmann, Pfeiffer und Elsässer and the Düsseldorf brokerage house Spütz Börsenservice GmbH were added.[7] With the acquisition of Eckes, Baader Bank entered the institutional brokerage business.[5] The acquisition of Spütz meant an expansion of order book management for derivative products.[7] Deutsche Börsenmakler GmbH was acquired at the beginning of 2008. With this step, the company expanded its activities in traded securities classes to include exchange-traded funds. Between 1998 and 2008, the bank acquired around 20 companies, making it the market leader with a market share of 31% in Frankfurt floor trading.[9]
On 31 July 2008, Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG became the full-service bank Baader Bank AG. In October, the bank joined the Association of German Banks, and at the same time, became a member of its Deposit Protection Fund.[3] With the launch of the Xetra model on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 23 May 2011, Baader Bank acquired the 120 order books of the lead broker companies Bid & Ask Financial Services mbH (Nuremberg), Hordoff GmbH (Frankfurt) and Mercurius Handelsbank GmbH (Frankfurt).[10] In August 2013, Baader Bank acquired the Swiss equity broker Helvea with offices in Geneva, Zürich, London, Montreal, and New York City.[11]
In July 2015, founder and owner Uto Baader handed over management of Baader Bank to his son Nico Baader.[12] After the bank registered losses, the following years saw restructuring and the consolidation of the group's structure through the disposal of strategically irrelevant units.[13][14]
Baader Bank began its expansion as a customer bank in 2018. Based on 25,000 securities accounts, a balance sheet of €700 million, and equity of €76 million, the number of securities accounts quadrupled within two years. At the end of 2021, there were just over half a million securities accounts. One year later, the number rose by 70% to 843,000, with the custody account volume reaching €15.7 billion. In June 2023, one million custody accounts were managed for the first time.[4]
