German Bank Lets Clients Vote on Dress Code

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While Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is relaxing the dress code for its employees, a German lender is saying: Not so fast!

Frankfurter Sparkasse -- a Frankfurt-based bank with 19 billion euros ($22 billion) in assets -- is setting up survey terminals in some of its branches, asking clients to vote on how advisers should come to work going forward.

Two of the bank’s employees took part in a recent photo shoot in which they presented different outfits - from tie and suit to jeans and sneakers. Those photos are on display on the terminals.

"The question of dress code occasionally came up internally. So we told ourselves: Let’s ask our customers for their opinion", said Julia Droege-Knaup, a spokeswomen for the lender "Based on the survey results, we want to develop recommendations that will, however, not be binding."

Customers can choose between these three styles:

Frankfurter Sparkasse is not the only German lender that has put the topic of clothing style on the agenda. For example, Hamburger Sparkasse introduced a casual dress code three years ago. "The usual tie has since been dispensable", said spokesman André Grunert.

In Liechtenstein, Bank Frick & Co AG gave all its employees sneakers in corporate colors and introduced a new dress code last year.

Original Story:
Sparkassen-Kunden stimmen über Dresscode ab, Goldman lockert ihn

Reporter on the original story: Stephan Kahl in Frankfurt at skahl@bloomberg.net

Editors responsible for the original story: Erhard Krasny at ekrasny@bloomberg.net, Stephan Kahl

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