Sustainable Finance Moving Center Stage - SFI Annual Meeting
Zürich, 4 October 2016
At the annual SFI (Swiss Finance Institute) meeting, Sabine Döbeli, CEO SSF, took part in a panel discussion on Long-Term Investing: Good intentions versus short-term behavior. With her on the panel were Dr. Guido Fürer (Group CIO, Swiss Re), Prof. Philipp Krüger (University of Geneva and Swiss Finance Institute) and H.S.H. Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein (CEO, LGT). The animated panel discussion was moderated by Reto Lipp (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF) and touched on topics around the mainstreaming of sustainable finance and what can help, as well as hinder, the process.
Dr. Fürer brought examples from the insurance industry on how they have been looking at sustainability issues and integrating these considerations into their processes and products. Prince Max was able to show how LGT is tackling these issues and brought up his views on how LGT is particularly active in looking into ESG issues within the private equity space. For private equity, ESG and sustainability considerations can be quite efficient as investor demands to improve corporate sustainability reaches the management of the investee companies. Prof. Krüger reiterated that academic studies on ESG and sustainability continuously support the idea that considering such issues in investment decisions leads to better informed decisions and out-performance. Sabine Döbeli brought the message across that sustainable investments are a natural fit for the Swiss banking sector and we should be focusing on turning them into a USP.
