The history of our bank

We look back with pride on more than 220 years of tradition in working with private investors and their families.

The history of Marcard, Stein & Co started in 1790 when the bank J.H. Stein was founded in Cologne. Marcard, Stein & Co founded based on the brokerage firm N. Delmonte & Consorten, which was established in 1893. In 1923 Enno von Marcard became a trainee at the bank, which had since changed its name to Delmonte & Co. In 1932 he became a co-partner and, four years later in 1936, he assumed sole ownership of the bank. In 1941 the bank was renamed Marcard & Co. By that time the business of the bank covered the full range of banking services.

In the post-war years after Second World War, a period of continuous growth started which Enno von Marcard promoted with great effort and energy well into old age. Under his leadership, Marcard & Co became a ‘foreign trade bank’ in 1949, which at the time was an extraordinary privilege. Enno von Marcard remained a personally liable shareholder of Marcard & Co until 1984, and he was the honorary chairman of the bank until his death in 1993. In its years as a foreign trade bank, the interest of foreign banks grew and Banque Indosuez (later Crédit Agricole Indosuez) acquired a considerable stake.

In 1987 the merger of the two private banks Marcard & Co, Hamburg, and J.H. Stein, Cologne, created today’s private bank MARCARD, STEIN & CO.

In July 1998 the owner-run private bank M.M.Warburg & CO in Hamburg acquired all of the shares of Crédit Agricole Indosuez. The admission of Marcard, Stein & Co to the Warburg Group in 1999 was the beginning of a strategy that focuses exclusively on the family office. This was the starting point for the developments that lead to the extraordinary position of Marcard, Stein & Co, being the only private bank in Germany that clearly defines family office services as its core business. Marcard, Stein & Co combines these services with the benefits of a traditional fully licensed bank.

Thomas Fischer, Speaker of the Board of Directors, has spent over 20 years building up the family office at Marcard, Stein & Co. He has successfully established the family office bank as a trustworthy partner to numerous families of entrepreneurs. With his experience as a family officer and his personal responsibility for the company, he makes a crucial contribution to successful, long-lasting client relations. Thomas Borghardt has been bringing his extensive experience in advising families of entrepreneurs to the Board of Directors since 2013.