After studying Business Law in Wiesbaden, Manuel joined Ernst & Young's (EY) Forensics & Integrity team in Frankfurt, with a short secondment in Sydney, Australia. He did special investigations there and helped customers strengthen/boost their internal control environment, focusing on AML/TF/ABC and fraud. He spent nearly eight years at EY before moving to one of Switzerland's oldest private banks as Head of Compliance for the German branch. He was later promoted to Deputy Head of Compliance of the bank's EU Group, where he played a key role in the move of the EU HQ from Luxembourg to Frankfurt. After three years in private banking, Manuel joined Santander Group as Openbank Germany's Head of Compliance. At the moment, he's mainly working on setting up a new branch in Germany and launching some new products in the areas of retail banking, wealth management and crypto.