wallstreet:online AG: Matthias Hach new CEO - Growth in Online Brokerage to be stepped up further

wallstreet:online AG: Matthias Hach new CEO - Growth in Online Brokerage to be stepped up further

• Recruitment of Matthias Hach underlines growth ambition in Online Brokerage
• Early contract extension with Board Member Stefan Zmojda - Zmojda to become Chief Revenue Officer
• Anticipated Smartbroker growth > 30,000 customers during the first two months of 2021
• André Kolbinger: "We are excited to have attracted one of the most accomplished digital banking and brokerage experts in Germany"

Berlin, 12 February 2021

As of 1 March 2021, Matthias Hach will become the new CEO of wallstreet:online AG (ISIN: DE000A2GS609). Matthias Hach will in particular drive the further expansion of Smartbroker, wallstreet:online's brokerage business. Smartbroker is one of Germany's fastest growing and largest neobrokers. It is currently anticipated that Smartbroker will attract >30,000 new customers to its securities account product in January and February 2021 alone.

Matthias Hach contributes substantial expertise in online brokerage. Matthias was Chief Marketing Officer of comdirect bank AG since 2018. Upon the merger with Commerzbank AG in November 2020, he was promoted to divisional board member in charge of comdirect, Digital Banking & Brokerage and Marketing. Further milestones of his professional career include Flatex GmbH, ViTrade AG as well as E*TRADE Deutschland, where, since 2000, he held positions as manging director or member of the executive board, respectively. Furthermore, Matthias Hach served or continues to serve as member of various supervisory and advisory boards. He also played a pivotal role in the development of Onvista Media since 2016.

At wallstreet:online AG, Matthias Hach will concentrate on Smartbroker and the interaction between the Group's portals, communities and social media assets with Smartbroker. The short to medium term focus will lie on the further development and extension of the headcount, expansion of organisational structures, the further increase in customer satisfaction and hence the achievement of high and sustainable long-term growth rates in the online brokerage business.

The Executive Board of wallstreet:online will include four individuals: in addition to Matthias Hach (CEO), the current CEO Stefan Zmojda will be in charge of sales as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Stefan's contract will be extended early through 2024. In addition, the Executive Board includes the long-time member Michael Bulgrin as Chief Content Officer (CCO) as well as Oliver Haugk as Chief Technical Officer (CTO).

André Kolbinger, Founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of wallstreet:online AG, comments: "We are excited to have attracted one of the most accomplished digital banking and brokerage experts in Germany. During the past years Matthias made a decisive contribution to the strong growth of one of the German market leaders. At the same time, he pressed ahead with the digitisation of the product portfolio. As far as mobile brokerage & banking are concerned, his expert knowledge will be priceless. At the same time, we thank Stefan Zmojda for his commitment during the last years. Stefan has been a decisive driver of the dynamic growth of the wallstreet:online Group. We are pleased to continue to access his experience in his new and important function as Chief Revenue Officer."

During the coming years, wallstreet:online AG intends to develop Smartbroker into one of the pre-eminent online brokers in Germany. The combination of the Group's established social media assets with its new online brokerage business uniquely positions the company to benefit from customer insights, product design possibilities and synergies not available to other market participants. At the same time, the anticipated customer growth and the intended expansion of Smartbroker is expected to yield new and significant revenue upsides for the Group's social media assets.

More than 80,000 customers opened a Smartbroker securities account during its first year of operation. During the same short period of time, Smartbroker has won several prestigious awards and accolades, and is also recommended by the non-profit consumer advice portal "Finanztip".

Matthias Hach: "I am very much looking forward to leading wallstreet:online on its path into an exciting and successful future. Together with the existing team, we will simplify investing, and make saving and investing in equities and capital markets products more accessible and comprehensible for ever expanding customer groups. This is particularly important in an environment of zero interest rates, and with the increasing requirement to privately save for retirement. The wallstreet:online Group combines information with interaction and transaction. Now, the task is to deepen and expand this outstanding basis for the benefit of our customers, employees and shareholders."

About the wallstreet:online Group:

Headquartered in Berlin and with offices in Zurich, Leipzig, Munich, and Kiel, the wallstreet:online Group operates the portals wallstreet-online.de, boersenNews.de, FinanzNachrichten.de and ARIVA.de. With around 466 million page impressions (as of 1/2021), the Group is the by far largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking Europe, and the number one financial community. Through wallstreet:online capital AG, the company has been operating for 20 years in the discount online financial intermediary business and therefore commands comprehensive expertise in the sale of investment products at minimum fees. Smartbroker is operated by wallstreet:online capital AG, which is subject to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). FondsDISCOUNT.de, the largest bank-independent online discount investment broker in Germany, is the second major product of wallstreet:online capital AG.

Press contact:

Felix Rentzsch
Press Spokesperson of the wallstreet:online Group
Mobile: +49 176 4165 0721
Email: f.rentzsch@wallstreet-online.de
URL: https://www.wallstreet-online.ag

Financal press and Investor Relations:

edicto GmbH
Ralf Droz / Svenja Liebig
Telephone: +49 69 905505 56
wallstreet-online@edicto.de