Dr. Henning Berger
Biography
Overview
Henning heads the firm's German Financial Services Regulatory (FSR) practice and co-heads the firm's EMEA FSR practice.
Henning is a highly experienced lawyer in public commercial law, with a particular focus on financial services regulation and insurance law. His practice includes advisory work as well as contentious regulatory proceedings. Henning has built a leading practice in regulatory disputes before the European Courts in Luxembourg for major European and German banks.
Henning's clients include international and German banking groups and other financial institutions, as well as government and public entities. A focus of Henning's practice is on the Supervision of the European Central Bank (ECB) over significant European banks and related issues, including governance, compliance and bank capital, and ownership control issues. Henning also focuses on issues of bank resolution, with a particular focus on the European Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). Often working across multiple jurisdictions, clients benefit from Henning's extensive experience of pan-European activities of banks, financial service providers and insurance companies, and also supervisory audit, investigation and enforcement measures.
According to Legal500 testimonials describe him as 'Extremely experienced and highly competent', and that he gives a 'Good combination of technical and litigious advice'.
Henning is member of a number of professional organizations, including the German Bar Association, the German Banking Law Association and the German Association for Insurance Science.
Experience
N26
Advised European digital bank N26 on the regulatory requirements and lifting of the growth restriction by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
State of Baden-Württemberg in dispute with Deutsche Bahn
Advised the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg in an action brought by Deutsche Bahn to recover additional costs of the 'Stuttgart 21' (S21) infrastructure project, winning a clear victory in proceedings before Stuttgart Administrative Court.
Deutsche Bank AG
Advice to and representation of Deutsche Bank AG before the European General Court in Luxembourg in a regulatory dispute against the European Central Bank (ECB) in an action for annulment regarding the ECB's 2022 SREP decision imposing certain requirements on Deutsche Bank.
DZ BANK AG
Advice to and representation of DZ BANK AG before the Appeals Board of the European Single Resolution Board (SRB) and before the European General Court in Luxembourg in an appeal / action for annulment against the SRB's decision on DZ BANK's 2023 MREL-requirement.
NORDEA, Deutsche Bank, LBBW, DZ BANK, BayernLB et. al.
Advice to and representation of these clients in actions for annulment before the European General Court in Luxembourg against the European Single Resolution Board (SRB) concerning the European banking levy from 2020 – 2023.
N26 BANK AG
Advising leading German Neobank N26 on a wide range of European and German supervisory, governance and compliance issues in a wide range of matters and their 2021 financing round.
NORDEA/Luminor Bank AS
Advising NORDEA on the sale of their shares in leading Baltic Bank Luminor to Blackstone; advising Luminor on supervisory, governance and compliance issues in a wide range of matters.
German Savings Banks Association's institutional protection scheme and its members Helaba, BayernLB and LBBW
Advised the German Savings Banks Association's institutional protection scheme and its members Helaba, BayernLB and LBBW on the €3.6 billion recapitalization of Norddeutsche Landesbank (Nord/LB).
DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank
Advised DZ Bank on its €1.5 billion capital increase. All 186.9 million new shares have been placed with shareholders at a subscription price of €7.90 per share, and as a result of the capital increase DZ BANK's Tier 1 ratio has increased to more than 10 percent.
German Federal Government
Representation of the German Federal Government in a constitutional dispute before the German Constitutional Court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") regarding the financing of the German Investor Compensation Scheme.
Federal State of Baden-Württemberg
Representation of the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg before the administrative courts with regard to a 5bn EUR dispute on the financing of the major railway infrastructure project "Stuttgart 21".
"Banking Supervision in Corporate Governance", Humboldt-University of Berlin, Seminar for Banking and Capital Market Law, (Upcoming) January 10, 2024.
"Sector Specific Screeing procedures" (together with Christoph Arhold), CFIS 2022 Conference in Upsala, Sweden, - Session VI – Administrative Procedure for Investment Screening, 03 June 2022.
"New requirements for resolution and bail-in eligible liabilities" within the online practical seminar on "CRD V, CRR II and the implementation in Germany", Association of Foreign banks in Germany e.V., 08 September 2020
"Towards a harmonized system of EU investment control" within the virtual symposium "Investment Screening in the European Union", ERA Academy of European Law; 29 - 30. April 2020
"The New Investment Screening Framework: Impact on Financial Institutions", ERA's Annual Conference on Financial Regulation and Supervision in the EU 2019, Brussels, Belgium, 12 - 13 December 2019
"The Hidden European Investment Screening Mechanism – The Banking and Insurance Sector", CELIS – International Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 7 March 2019
„Banking Supervision", in: Münchener Handbuch des Gesellschaftsrechts, Mergers vol. VIII, Chapter 64, 8th ed. 2023 (upcoming),
"FDI Control and Parallel Sector-Specific Screening Procedures – are there Ways to Increase Efficiency?" (with Christoph Arhold), in: Jens Hillebrand Pohl, Steffen Hindelang, Thomas Papadopoulos, Janosch Wiesenthal (ed.), National Security and Investment Controls: Further Collected Papers on the Law and Geoeconomics of Foreign Capital, Volume II, Springer, June 2023.
"Ultra Vires Review of SSM- and SRM-Measures? Reflections on the Recent Jurisprudence by the Bundesverfassungsgericht", in: Lackhoff (ed.), Banking Supervision and COVID-19, BECK/HART/NOMOS 2021, Chapter R, p. 269
"The Banking and Insurance Sector", in: Hindelang/Moberg (ed.), A Common European Law on Investment Screening (CELIS), YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 2020, Springer, June 2020
"Financial Services and Brexit: Navigating towards Future Market Access", co-authored with Nikolai Badenhoop, European Business Organization Law Review (2018), p. 679
"Brexit – consequences for credit institutions" (Brexit - Folgen für Kreditinstitute), co-authored with Nikolai Badenhoop, Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Bankrecht, S. 1078) WM, 2018
"The question of the ECB's competence to supervise a Landeskreditbank" („Frage der Zuständigkeit der EZB zur Aufsicht über eine Landeskreditbank") (pages 60-64), Banking Law, Article 70 SSM-Rahmenverordnung EUG, WuB 2018
Co-author, "Freedom of information and financial supervision - Questions regarding the access to information under the European
Single Supervisory Mechanism, SSM (Informationsfreiheit und Finanzaufsicht – Fragen zum Informationszugang im ,Single Supervisory Mechanism, SSM')", Deutsches Verwaltungsblatt, Issue 10, Pages 608-616, 2015 (with Benjamin Schirmer)
"The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) – Banking supervision in the Eurozone (Der einheitliche Aufsichtsmechanismus (SSM) – Bankenaufsicht im europäischen Verbund)", WM, Issue 11, Pages 501 – 506, 2015
Co-author, "Bundesbank Act, Nomos-Commentary. The German Federal Law (Bundesbankgesetz, Nomos-Kommentar. Das deutsche Bundesrecht)". Baden-Baden, Loose Leaf System, Status: 06/2014 (with Katrin Rübsamen)
Best Lawyer Germany in Insurance Law, Public Law, Regulatory Practice, Handelsblatt 2013-2023
Highly Recommended Lawyer, Financial services: regulatory, Legal 500 Germany 2023
Highly Recommended Lawyer:
Banking and Regulatory, JUVE 2022/2023
Highly Recommended Lawyer: Public Law, JUVE 2022/2023
