International Monetary Fund
World Bank GroupThe Future of Finance
imf seminars event
DATE: October 12, 2014
DAY: Sunday
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION: George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium
Overview
As recovery takes hold and we put the crisis behind us challenges and opportunities are being posed for the financial sector and finance as a whole. We have witnessed a depletion of trust and a loss of faith in markets, a deficit that still needs to be addressed. Meanwhile banks are adapting to new market and regulatory realities and are being challenged by the expansion of nonbanks while technology raises the prospect for enhancing financial inclusion but also the potential for disruption. There are evident implications for financial stability, economic growth, and social cohesion from these changes. As a result, economists and policymakers are increasingly coming to the view that economic concerns cannot be divorced from financial changes and ethical concerns. The central question is: how do we make the financial sector not only safer but of better service to all members of society? This seminar will facilitate a discussion of these issues, bringing together leading policymakers and other thinkers on the topic from a broad range of fields including the financial sector, academia and religion. The discussion will reflect upon the continued tendency of the financial sector to prize short-term personal gain over longer-term social purpose; strengthening and de-risking of bank balance sheets with implications for future bank business models; the opportunity for nonbanks and shadow banking to add to economic growth while raising the need to expand the regulatory perimeter; it will also explore implications of the idea that financial markets (and capitalism in general) are only sustainable if there is trust in the system, which in turn requires minimal standards of ethics and integrity.
View other sessions:
Session 1: Ethics and Finance
Session
2: The Changing Role of Banks
Session
4: Technology and Financial Inclusion
Recommended Reading >
Media Partners
The Future of Finance
Session 3: Expanding Role of Nonbanks
Panelists
Moderator: Vitor Constâncio
Vítor Constâncio is Vice-President of the European Central Bank since 1 June 2010. He was Governor of Banco de Portugal from 1985 to 1986 and from February 2000 to May 2010. He graduated in Economics from Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. Before having been appointed Governor of Banco de Portugal, he was Executive Director of Banco Português de Investimento (1995-2000) and non-executive Director of Electricidade de Portugal (EDP), the Portuguese national power utility (1998-2000).
