"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,” said Olivier Carré, Financial Services Market Leader, PwC Luxembourg, who offered the welcome note to the event.

“The transition towards a sustainable and green economy is inevitable and Luxembourg is in a strong position to benefit from the growth in ESG assets, but the financial services industry must adapt quickly in order to reap the benefits." Olivier continued. “Endorsing sustainability is a distinctive positioning at this stage of the regulatory change. There is a great opportunity that comes with all this, in bringing together financial performance and sustainability criteria.”

Rima Adas, Deputy Territory Senior Partner, PwC and EMEA Financial Services Leader, who also welcomed the delegates, said, “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 - Financial Services from a different angle.

Andrew McDowell, Former Vice President, European Investment Bank, Sustainable Finance expert, gave a talk on, “Transforming the European Investment Bank into the ‘EU Climate Bank’”. In it 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.  “Financial firms need to repair, rethink, reconfigure and report,” he said.

Roxane Haas, Banking Leader, PwC Luxembourg, moderated a lively discussion with key market players on the Future of Financial Services that included Sean Byrne, CEO, PayPal Europe, Marc Lauer, CEO, Foyer Group, Christoph Bergweiler, CEO, Conducting Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) S.à r.l. and Micaela Forelli, Head of European Distribution, MD at M&G Investments Luxembourg.

Changing competitive environment in Luxembourg

Nathalie Dogniez, EMEA ESG Leader and Jörg Ackermann, Financial Services Partner, 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 in October.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the report when it is released, or if you would like to know more about Sustainable Finance in general or this event, please visit our website.