We are the brains behind PAYMENT.TECHNOLOGY.LAW. – a team of FinTech lawyers from the law firm Annerton in Berlin, Frankfurt a. M., Luxembourg & Munich and other payment and FinTech enthusiasts. On PayTechLaw, we report on legal topics, issues and challenges relating to payment, banking, crypto, technology, investment, tax and law.
We are tech nerds and early adopters of new technologies. We believe in the enormous potential of technologies such as artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technology and identity technology. However, the transition to a digital age also requires a certain degree of trust in and responsible use of new technologies. Legislators are meeting these challenges with a regulatory framework. Ideally, these should create a level playing field for all market participants. We help market participants to see regulatory frameworks as an opportunity and not just a burden. With our blog and podcast, we promote this understanding by presenting complex legal topics in the language of market participants.
In addition to the legal issues typical of the industry, we also know the market environment, products and market developments. We believe that you can’t solve everything on your own. We therefore work hand in hand with the best specialists in the industry – without any restrictions imposed by law firm or national borders or professional groups. We are dialogue partners for decision-makers in politics and business and maintain close contact with supervisory authorities, industry experts and associations.
We ask the right questions, offer solutions and do not take everything for granted. We want to pave the way for a digital future and an R/Evolution of the payment, banking and FinTech industry.
We are partners, not just consultants. We are PAYMENT.TECHNOLOGY.LAW
Kemal Ahmedi
Kemal is a lawyer at the law firm Annerton (Berlin office). He focuses on all legal and regulatory aspects in the areas of payment services, e-commerce, credit and finance as well as blockchain & DLT.
Dr Alexander Bauer, LL.M. (King’s College London)
Dr. Alexander Bauer, LL.M., is a lawyer at Annerton with a focus on German and European banking and banking supervisory law. His practice concentrates on capital markets and financial services regulation, as well as the regulatory aspects of digital business models, particularly in the areas of FinTech, payment services, and crypto.
Tom Braegelmann
Tom Braegelmann is a lawyer / Of Counsel at Annerton Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH. He is an internationally experienced insolvency and restructuring expert, has previously worked for well-known commercial law firms and is admitted to the bar in both Germany and the USA. For more than three years, he worked in New York City in the areas of insolvency law/bankruptcy and intellectual property law. Tom Braegelmann is very familiar with the latest technological legal developments, in particular the digitalisation of the economy, restructuring and insolvency law. He also specialises in advising on modern digital business models.
Peter Frey
Peter Frey has been working as a lawyer since 2002. The lawyer and partner at the Annerton law firm in Munich specialises in providing comprehensive advice on banking and banking supervisory law, payment transactions law and asset management. He is co-author and general editor of the “Commentary on Payment Transactions Law” by Ellenberger/Findeisen/Nobbe.
Peter studied law at the University of Passau and the University of Munich.
Sebastian Glaab
Sebastian Glaab is a lawyer and partner at Annerton in Frankfurt am Main. He has extensive knowledge, particularly in the areas of money laundering prevention (editor of the GwG commentary “Zentes/Glaab”), securities compliance, MaRisk compliance and sanctions, and is very familiar with the practice due to his 12 years as a compliance officer and money laundering officer at an international credit institution.
Sebastian Glaab is a regular speaker at specialist lectures and events in the financial sector.
Dr. Susanne Grohé
Dr Susanne Grohé began her legal career at Linklaters. Most recently, she headed the legal department of PayPal for the DACH region. Prior to that, she worked at eBay, where she was responsible in particular for payment transaction issues. She specialises in regulatory issues and product consulting in the FinTech and eCommerce sector.
As a former in-house lawyer with broad experience, she knows the legal and economic problems and needs of her clients very well from her own experience.
Susanne studied law at the Universities of Freiburg and Göttingen and spent a research stay at Georgetown University, Washington DC, for her doctoral thesis.
Dr. Hugo Godschalk
Born in the Netherlands in 1957, he studied economics at the University of Münster/Westphalia (1974-1979). He obtained his doctorate in 1982 with a thesis on the future monetary order in the computer age. In 1984, he began his career at GZS Gesellschaft für Zahlungssysteme mbH (Eurocard), later as head of the business administration department in the controlling division of the Eurocard, eurocheque and payment system development divisions. From 1990 to 1993, he then worked as a senior consultant in the payment systems and electronic banking division at the consulting firm Ordina (Deutschland) GmbH. Since 1993, he has been a managing partner of the management consultancy PaySys Consultancy GmbH in Frankfurt am Main. He also represented the Prepaid Verband Deutschland (PVD e.V.) as Managing Director from 2013-2018.
Christopher Gretsch
Christopher Gretsch advises institutions and companies at Annerton’s Frankfurt office on all aspects of financial regulatory law. His practice focuses in particular on advising credit institutions, financial services institutions, and payment institutions on all matters relating to the German Banking Act (KWG), the German Investment Firm Act (WpIG), the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), the German Payment Services Supervision Act (ZAG), and the German Anti-Money Laundering Act (GwG).
Christopher studied law at Justus Liebig University Giessen and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Charles Krier
Avocat à la Cour Charles Krier is one of the founders of Annerton S.A. in Luxembourg. As a partner, he advises his clients from the payment services, e-commerce, credit & finance, factoring and blockchain & DLT sectors, specialising in payment services & payment services supervisory law, banking & banking supervisory law, money laundering law, outsourcing, capital markets law and corporate law.
Charles is a member of the Association Luxembourgeoise des Juristes de Droit Bancaire (ALJB) and a member of the FinTech Lawyers Network
Ramona-Patricia Liegl
Since being admitted to the bar in 2016, she has been advising clients on banking and capital market law issues, with a focus on payment transaction law. She also has particular experience in representing banks and financial service providers in contentious proceedings.
Dr. Florian Lörsch
As a lawyer and partner at Annerton’s Berlin office, Dr Florian Lörsch primarily advises national and international companies from the credit & finance, factoring, payment services and e-commerce sectors as well as customer loyalty & vouchers, blockchain & DLT. He specialises in payment services & payment services supervisory law, banking & banking supervisory law, money laundering law, as well as funds and corporate law.
In addition to his work as a lawyer, Florian has been teaching at the Berlin School of Economics and Law since 2018.
Ariane Lunderstedt
Ariane Lunderstedt advises national and international financial sector institutions, with a focus on compliance and anti-money laundering prevention. She has expertise in anti-money laundering law as well as related areas of banking and financial regulatory law. Ariane also advises institutions on authorisation and licensing procedures, as well as on cross-border regulatory matters for German and foreign institutions.
Tancrède Montagne
Tancrède Montagne works at Annerton S.A. in Luxembourg, where he advises companies in the areas of payment services, investment funds, credit financing as well as blockchain and DLT.
Tancrède Montagne is admitted to the Luxembourg Bar and has gained professional experience in renowned Luxembourg law firms.
Frank Müller, LL.M.
Frank Müller, LL.M. is a lawyer and partner at the Annerton law firm in Munich. He has been advising German and international companies and start-ups on all matters relating to banking, banking supervisory, payment transaction and money laundering law since 2008.
In addition to his advisory work at Annerton, he gives lectures at national and international conferences (including Money20/20Europe) and publishes industry-specific articles. Frank is co-founder, editor and author of the blog PAYMENT.TECHNOLOGY.LAW. He is the initiator of the FinTech Lawyers Network, an international alliance of payment and FinTech lawyers.
Frank studied law at the University of Regensburg and completed a master’s programme at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town) with a focus on International Payment Systems.
Niklas Olschewski
Niklas Olschewski advises companies in the payment services, blockchain and DLT, as well as banking and financial services sectors. His practice focuses primarily on banking and banking supervisory law, anti-money laundering law, and payment services regulatory law.
Niklas studied law at the University of Hamburg and the Universidad de Chile.
Dr. Steffen Rapp
Tianqiao Pan is a Compliance Manager at Annerton Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH in Frankfurt am Main.
Tianqiao supports national and international companies in the financial and non-financial sectors on a wide range of compliance matters.
Renate Prinz
Before joining Annerton, Renate spent many years working at international law firms, advising on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and financial regulatory matters.
She studied law at the University of Münster, where she also completed a specialist foreign language programme in legal French.
Dr. Steffen Rapp
Dr Steffen Rapp specialises in providing tax advice to banks and payment transaction companies, private clients as well as medium-sized companies and entrepreneurs. Among other things, he advises clients on the VAT structuring of their business relationships, the tax structuring of corporate and asset succession, real estate tax law and international tax law.
He studied business administration at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg and UC Berkeley, USA.
Dr Steffen Rapp is the author and co-author of various specialist publications.
Nadja Reiß
Nadja Reiß is based at Annerton’s Frankfurt office and advises both national and international institutions and companies on all aspects of financial regulatory law. Her practice focuses on advising credit institutions, financial services institutions, investment firms, and payment institutions on all matters relating to the German Banking Act (KWG), the German Investment Firm Act (WpIG), the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), and the German Payment Services Supervision Act (ZAG).
Before joining Annerton, Nadja Reiß spent several years at leading international law firms in Frankfurt, specialising in financial regulatory and capital markets law.
Nadja studied law at the University of Freiburg and the University of Helsinki.
Dr. Franz Ringel
Many years of experience and expertise in providing legal advice in the national and international media industry, including for an international pay-TV broadcaster, a German family-run media and technology group and a US online retailer. Dr Franz Ringel therefore advises Annerton Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH primarily in the areas of media and data protection law, copyright law, competition law and e-commerce.
Dr. Matthäus Schindele
Matthäus is a lawyer and partner at the Annerton law firm in Munich. He has been advising clients from the financial services and payment industry for over 10+ years. He specialises in advising on issues relating to banking supervisory law, payment transaction law and money laundering law. He is co-author of the commentary Ellenberger/Findeisen/Nobbe on payment transactions law and the commentary by Preuße on the law on bonds from total issues.
Caroline Schreiner
Caroline Schreiner is a guest author at PayTechLaw and a research assistant at Annerton’s Munich office. She supports the team in particular in the areas of civil law, payment transactions law and banking and banking supervisory law.
Josefine Spengler
Josefine Spengler is a lawyer and IT law specialist at Annerton’s Berlin office. She has many years of in-house experience as Head of Legal and Data Protection Officer at a payment service provider. As an expert in the IT and FinTech segment, Josefine Spengler advises national and international clients on all issues at the interface between regulatory law and IT law as well as on compliance and AML issues.
Dr. Jörg Streißle
Dr Jörg Streißle is Of Counsel at Annerton Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH in Munich. He specialises in advising national and international banks and financial service providers on regulatory, civil and corporate law issues. Dr Jörg headed the legal department of Merck Finck Privatbankiers AG for many years. He is therefore very familiar with the banking industry in all its facets, far beyond the legal field.
Svetlana Ulrici
Svetlana is a lawyer at Annerton Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH. She advises national and international FinTech companies and financial services institutions on issues of IT and data protection law as well as intellectual property law. Her main areas of expertise are outsourcing, IT law contract drafting and regulatory requirements for payment service providers in the interface area of IT, data protection and financial supervisory law.
Marina von Wallenberg-Pachaly
Marina von Wallenberg-Pachaly studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and works as a lawyer at the law firm Annerton. Marina has particular expertise in the areas of payment services & payment services regulatory law, banking & banking regulatory law, financial services law, as well as money laundering law and outsourcing, which is why she mainly advises clients from the payment services, customer loyalty & vouchers, identity management, e-commerce, credit & finance and technology sectors.
Christian Walz
Christian Walz is a lawyer and partner at the Annerton law firm in Munich. He has been advising German and international clients for over 15+ years on all matters relating to banking, banking supervisory and payment transaction law, as well as money laundering law.
He is co-author and general editor of the “Commentary on Payment Transactions Law” by Ellenberger/Findeisen/Nobbe.
Awet Yohannes
Awet Yohannes is a lawyer at Annerton in Munich. He advises (inter)national companies on all regulatory issues relating to banking, crypto, payments and compliance (AML/GwG and IT compliance in financial supervisory law).
