The b --> s l^+ l^- anomalies and their implications for new physics

Recently, the LHC has found several anomalies in exclusive semileptonic b --> s l^+ l^- decays. In this proceeding, we summarize the most important results of our global analysis of the relevant decay modes. After a discussion of the hadronic uncertainties entering the theoretical predictions, we present an interpretation of the data in terms of generic new physics scenarios. To this end, we have performed model-independent fits of the corresponding Wilson coefficients to the data and have found that in certain scenarios the best fit point is prefererred over the Standard Model by a global significance of more than 4σ. Based on the results, the discrimination between high-scale new physics and low-energy QCD effects as well as the possibility of lepton-flavour universality violation are discussed.