The challenges, the enormous growth potential, and viable solutions associated with the establishment of a sustainably oriented financial sector were examined from various perspectives.

 

Prof. François Degeorge, Managing Director of SFI, Sabine Döbeli, SSF CEO, and Joerg Gasser, SBA CEO, opened the conference at 1 p.m. sharp with a brief welcome address, agreeing that the Swiss financial center recognized the signs early and today is excellently positioned with regard to sustainable finance. Swiss players in the sector have impressive expertise and are remarkably agile in all relevant dimensions, actively helping to shape the transformation to a sustainably oriented financial sector. We are, though, only at the beginning of that profound transformation. Various regulatory and procedural hurdles still need to be overcome, attests SFI Professor Philipp Krueger, SFI Senior Chair and Professor of Responsible Finance at the University of Geneva, in his latest Public Discussion Note on the topic of "Sustainable Finance Metrics," which he presented. His conclusion: global transparency standards is the only way forward. Michael Baldinger, Chief Sustainability Officer of UBS, commented in a similar vein, referring to the fact that global green capital is expected to grow to more than 160 trillion US dollars by 2050, which—from the perspective of the financial industry—requires global regulation of the sustainability universe as local, unilateral measures would unnecessarily increase implementation complexity. In his presentation, Dr. Julian Koelbel, Head of Research at the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at the University of Zurich, examined the fundamental question of the extent to which sustainable investments are actually capable of achieving impact, while Dr. Michael Urban, Deputy Head of Sustainability at Lombard Odier, explained how and why the western Switzerland–based private bank is establishing its own research in the area of sustainability    and what approach it is taking. Dr. Eric Balmer, Head of Financing Solutions at  Credit Suisse, examined the practical implementation of concrete sustainable finance solutions from the perspective of this, the second major Swiss bank to contribute to the conference, while Regula Berger, Member of the Executive Board  of Basler Kantonalbank, spoke about the challenges associated with the financing of sustainable companies or with the transformation to sustainable business models, each in a banking context.

The very well attended conference was brought to a close by a lively panel discussion between Regula Berger, Sabine Döbeli, Dr. Paul Inderbinen, Deputy Head of the Financial System & Financial Market Department at the Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF), Professor Krueger, and Dr. Urban—expertly moderated by journalist Hannah Wise. 

The detailed SFI Public Discussion Note "Sustainable Finance Metrics" by SFI Prof. Philipp Krueger can be found at https://www.sfi.ch/en/publications/pdn-sfm .