This year, for the 19th edition of the "Financial Services Forum - Financial Services from a different angle", PwC Luxembourg hosted a virtual Sustainable Finance and Financial Services conference; organised in two parts, the PwC Financial Services Forum and the PwC Sustainable Finance Forum took place virtually on 30 September 2020.
The focus of these events was the importance of sustainable finance and ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) globally, in Luxembourg and across the industries and services.
In his welcome address, Olivier Carré, Financial Services Market Leader at PwC Luxembourg, stated: "Sustainable Finance is a great opportunity and there are many catalysts for the move in this direction, including: (1) Regulation (compliance to new standards) and (2) Investor demand, amongst others. For product manufacturers and financial intermediaries aligning to ESG standards may imply more limited choice of investments, but such positioning entails a protection to downside risk and a strategic move to benefit from upsides in investment performance and investor marketing. COVID-19, and a general societal push toward social and environmental matters, are also drivers”.
Rima Adas, Deputy Territory Senior Partner at PwC and EMEA Financial Services Leader, added: “Society is taking on a new consciousness. The coming generation is asking for a sustainable future and a sustainable business model. We need to live up to these expectations”.
The day offered a rich programme of topics, speakers and break-out sessions for both the PwC Sustainable Finance Forum and the PwC Financial Services Forum.
Andrew McDowell, Former Vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Sustainable Finance expert, gave a talk on “Transforming the European Investment Bank into the‘ EU Climate Bank”, in which he said: “We realised that we couldn’t continue with our traditional risk models. We had to make adjustments to adapt to the policy changes in technology, energy and the net-zero commitment by 2050. There are many challenges we still need to face when it comes to the EU Action Plan. An important one is that we still need to win the battle of hearts and minds of businesses and beyond”.
During the afternoon, another highlight was keynote speaker, John Garvey, PwC’s Global Financial Services Leader, who offered his view on the future of financial services. In the first part of his talk, he presented the macro trends with the biggest impact on financial services. In the second part, he addressed the framework that he believes is necessary to allow financial services firms to translate the macro trends into an action plan and prepare for tomorrow. He explained: “Financial firms need to repair, rethink, reconfigure and report”.
Similarly, Roxane Haas, Banking Leader at PwC Luxembourg, moderated a lively discussion with key market players on the Future of Financial Services, which brought together Sean Byrne, CEO of PayPal Europe, Marc Lauer, CEO of Foyer Group, Christoph Bergweiler, CEO, Conducting Officer and Member of the Board of Directors at JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) S.à rl, and Micaela Forelli, Head of European Distribution at MD at M&G Investments Luxembourg.
In addition, Nathalie Dogniez, EMEA ESG Leader, and Jörg Ackermann, Financial Services Partner and Sustainable Finance Consulting Leader, both from PwC Luxembourg, spoke on the changing competitive environment in Luxembourg. Nathalie Dogniez noted that: “10 March 2021 isn’t the ultimate deadline for ESG, it’s the beginning of a journey. For business, the adjustment of disclosure is the starting point for obtaining information from companies they are investing in. Reassess your operative model, adjust processes linked to risk management, investment, compliance and data governance and engage with distributors. Take into account that ESG scoring to measure performance has little to do with taxonomy alignment or with measuring sustainable investment impact. There is work to do!”
At this conference, PwC gave a sneak preview of its latest ESG report, developed in tandem with the PwC Market Research Centre. The final in-depth report will be released globally this month.
