Transformation financing 2024 in the focus of Germany Finance

NRW The working group of German financial centers Germany Finance looks back on a successful year and is focusing on financing the digital and ecological transformation in 2024. This year, the spokesperson role has rotated from the financial center Frankfurt to North Rhine-Westphalia. The baton was passed from Andreas Glänzel, Managing Director of the financial center initiative Frankfurt Main Finance, to Jürgen Schnitzmeier from Fin.Connect.NRW and Managing Director of ZENIT GmbH.

The aim of Germany Finance is to increase the attractiveness and diversity of Germany as a financial center and to initiate and communicate joint activities. The respective spokesperson of the initiative is the first point of contact for all questions regarding the initiative and coordinates the activities of the participating partners: Berlin Finance Initiative, Frankfurt Main Finance e.V., Finanzplatz Hamburg e.V., Fin.Connect.NRW and Stuttgart Financial.

In 2024, the partners of Germany Finance are focusing in particular on the topic of transformation financing as the biggest challenge currently facing the financial and real economy. „Digitalization and decarbonization are not only triggering gigantic investment and financing requirements with new risk factors. They are forcing banks and the credit industry, as well as companies, to make disruptive adjustments to their products, processes and business models,“ says Schnitzmeier, explaining the focus of Germany Finance: „The transformation of the financial and real economy is already in full swing, but the pressure on players, particularly in the banking and financial sector, to act is increasing.“ As a basis for the work, an international comparative study on the financing of the transformation in the USA and Europe with a focus on Germany is planned in order to derive recommendations for action for policymakers and players in the financial ecosystem in Germany.

One of the numerous projects of Germany Finance 2023 was the online consultation on the question „What should the German financial sector do to encourage more young people to work in this field?“. Over a period of eight weeks, 4,744 young people between the ages of 15 and 35 participated on the platform of the civic tech organization Make.org Germany with 605 suggestions, which were voted on more than 48,000 times.

Andreas Glänzel, then spokesperson for the working group, presented the results of the consultation at Deutsche Börse’s Cube in Eschborn. In the subsequent discussion round, the then Hessian Minister of Education Prof. Dr. Ralph Alexander Lorz, the CEO of Deutsche Börse Dr. Theodor Weimer and Eschborn’s Mayor Adnan Shaikh discussed the results and what steps business, education and politics should take to promote young talent.

„The German financial centers deal with largely identical topics and face very similar challenges. Our harmonious cooperation in the Germany Finance working group shows that better solutions can be found together to strengthen Germany as a financial center in international competition,“ says Glänzel, Managing Director of the Financial Center Initiative Frankfurt Main Finance.