Börsen-Zeitung, 3 November 2022
KfW CEO Stefan Wintels used an appearance in the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to emphasise the importance of mobilising private capital to advance the urgently needed digital and sustainable transformation of the economy. On the one hand, KfW must ensure that its promotional funds have the strongest possible impact. On the other hand, the federal promotional bank must also mobilise and leverage more private capital, Wintels said at the first “stock exchange breakfast” in two years. Wintels, who has now been in office as KfW’s CEO for almost a year to the day, reaffirmed his commitment to Frankfurt as a financial centre in this context.
The long-time Germany head of Citigroup reiterated his conviction that the “decade of decision” had begun. Now the course must be set that will have a decisive influence on the living conditions of future generations. It is a matter of “getting into implementation mode”. Two fields of action are a priority for KfW: firstly, climate and the environment, and secondly, digitalisation and innovation.
Germany and Europe must strengthen their resilience. With regard to energy supply, this means accelerating the development of green energies, diversifying sources (which is why KfW supports, for example, the establishment of an LNG infrastructure that can later also process hydrogen) and increasing energy efficiency. Concrete fields of action include significantly increasing the renovation rates of buildings and expanding the infrastructure for electric vehicles. In terms of digitalisation and innovation, there is a need for action due to the still insufficient investments of small and medium-sized enterprises or in view of the deficits in education or the lack of skilled workers.
Thomas Book, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse, also established a connection between the financial market and innovation by describing a well-functioning capital market as an “engine of change”. However, there was still plenty of potential as far as the development of the capital market in Germany was concerned. The planned departure of the heavyweight Linde from the Dax documents how strongly capital markets compete with each other today.
This is an automated translation of the original German news article.
Text: Börsen-Zeitung, 3 November 2022, Page 5 (Second publication right)
Cover Image: Unsplash
