Recap: Financial Center Summit 2021

Stuttgart The 14th Stuttgart Financial Center Summit took place on April 20, 2021 – this year in a digital format for the first time. Under the motto „Baden-Württemberg on the way to more sustainability“, the established forum of the Financial Center Summit was used to discuss the idea of sustainability with a view to the region and the financial services industry. The digital format made it possible to bring the participants of the Stuttgart financial center together virtually despite the pandemic. The entire event was broadcast to viewers at home via the Talque event platform, while the speakers were on site at the event location in strict compliance with the Corona Directive.

Opening: At 6:00 p.m., moderator Ilka Groenewold opened the Financial Center Summit 2021 live from the event location Gate 22 under the moderation of Dr. Michael Völter. He found apt, introductory words to introduce the participants to the topic of the evening „Baden-Württemberg on the way to more sustainability“. Among other things by a very pleasing and forward-looking announcement: The publication of the „Stuttgart Declaration on the Sustainable Transformation of the Financial Center“. As sustainability is to be the clear guiding principle of the government’s actions and is thus to be established as a decisive criterion for political and entrepreneurial decisions, Winfried Kretschmann, Minister President of the State of Baden-Württemberg, also addressed a few words to the participants and once again underlined the importance of sustainability for the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Keynote: In order to offer the participants added value and high-quality input, the next item on the agenda was the keynote speech „Sustainable Finance – from the niche to the mainstream“ by Prof. Dr. Christian Klein. He is Professor for Sustainable Finance at the University of Kassel and has been working on the topic of „Sustainable Finance“ for 10 years now.  With the words „Sustainability and investment, that sounds to some like Trump and Greta or Porsche and speed limit…“ as well as entertaining anecdotes from his everyday life as a professor, he introduced his lecture and explained the term Sustainable Finance, the development of the meaning of the term in recent years and the recognized role it plays today.

Panel discussion: Ilka Groenewold guided the audience not only through the whole evening, but also through the panel discussion that followed. Prof. Dr. Christian Klein, Marcel Haag, Christina Opitz, Tina Dreimann and Dr. Max Weber shared their views on the topic of „Sustainability as a new guiding principle in the financial sector: opportunities, challenges and practical implementation“ and answered questions from the audience afterwards.

Even more information and the full recording of the event can be found here.