Banks in upheaval - paths to a new beginning

German banks are facing challenges that threaten their very existence. Cost-cutting alone is not enough in the long run. Business models must be scrutinized and, in some cases, fundamentally transformed. Since the 1980s, Prof. Dr. Clemens Renker —a former executive at credit institutions, lecturer, and consultant—has been applying business and marketing concepts to the financial sector. For many years, he served as the director of German banking conferences organized by Handelsblatt/EUROFORUM. His book *Relationship Marketing in Corporate Banking* has been published in three editions.

He is now affiliated with the ICFMR International Center for Financial Research as a member of its academic advisory board. The ICFMR, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Tatjana V. Nikitina, focuses on strengthening the competitiveness and viability of financial institutions. In addition to professors from Switzerland and Belgium, members also include professors from the Technical University of Munich and the universities of Mainz, Frankfurt, and Jena.

Prof. Renker thus fulfills the tasks of generating and transferring scientific knowledge as agreed upon in the cooperation agreement with the St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON), which was recently signed by our Rector, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Albrecht.