The BNP Paribas brand for independent asset managers, fund brokers, investment advisers and institutional clients was founded on 18 January 1994 as the first discount broker in Germany, trading under Direkt Anlage- und Vermögensverwaltungs-GmbH, and started operations in May 1994 as Direkt Anlage Bank GmbH (DAB).

After "the stock boom around the turn of the millennium and the significantly decreased order numbers, it had missed the change from pure online broker to digital full bank.

In 2001, the bank was listed as part of the acquisition of the French online broker Selftrade on the Nouveau Marché (New Market) of the Paris Stock Exchange - the delisting in France took place in 2010.

At the beginning of August 2014, the French major bank BNP Paribas, which also owns Consorsbank, acquired an 81.4% stake for € 354 million.

As of 31 December 2012, the DAB Bank Group had 597,128 customers, for which it managed 615,288 accounts with a combined client asset of €28,38 billion.