10th Financial Market Symposium at the UBT

More than 50 visitors (students, professors, academic staff and practitioners from the banking and finance sector) critically discussed recent developments, challenges and solutions in the field of sustainable finance at the 10th Financial Market Symposium. At the high-ranking conference, representatives from academia and practice provided keynote speeches for the discussion. The symposium was organised by the Research Centre for Banking Law and Banking Policy in cooperation with the Ludwig Erhard Foundation.

After a brief introduction to sustainable finance issues from an economic perspective and from the perspective of financial market players, Prof Dr Stefan Kooths (Head of the Business Cycle and Growth Department at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy) opened the conference with critical theses on the use of instruments in the area of sustainable finance. His core thesis was that control through fine regulation, as favoured by the EU, would lead to high transaction costs and misallocations. Instead, an attempt should be made to internalise the external effects in the climate sector and other fields through market-based instruments. This would allow the market mechanism to continue to provide reliable signals for investors via price signals.

For the second panel "Market participants and regulation in Europe", Benedikt von Albedyll (Consulting Banking & Capital Markets Transformation, Deloitte), Julia Trabert (Senior Supervisor, European Central Bank) and Christian Heller (Member of the Board, Value Balancing Alliance) gave keynote speeches on the consequences of regulation in the area of sustainable finance for the various market players (banks, financial intermediaries, companies). What does international financial market regulation (taxonomy, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) mean for the players? What consequences can be expected?

The third concluding panel was dedicated to the question of solutions at the level of financial market players and other companies. Dr Nicolaus Heinen (Head of Group ESG Strategy, Deutsche Börse AG), Claus Stickler. Member of the Board Allianz Investment Management (AIM) and Hannah Helmke (CEO, Right.Based on Science) addressed two key aspects in particular: How well prepared are financial market players and other companies for the requirements of (tightening) regulation in the area of "sustainable finance"? How can and should deficits be remedied?

In addition to the keynote speeches, discussion was, as always, at the centre of the conference. Not only the experts, but all participants were invited to ask questions and make comments.