The event, organised by Stadtentwicklung Zürich in cooperation with the Swiss Sustainable Finance association and the Zurich Banking Association, explored the possibilities offered by digital technologies in the further development of sustainability in the financial sector and how the financial centre can successfully combine these two trends.

In her welcoming address, Mayor Corine Mauch thanked all actors who are committed to strengthening and further developing the financial sector. She noted that Zurich is well positioned for the two promising topics of "sustainable finance" and "fintech" and that the financial sector continues to be a mainstay of the city's economy.

Manuel Rybach from Credit Suisse gave an example of how the major bank can use innovative financial technologies to lend to small businesses more efficiently and thus contribute to greater financial inclusion. In various areas, possible applications at the interface of the two topics would be considered or already implemented. In order to fully exploit the development potential in the future, technology-neutral and competitive framework conditions are indispensable.

Tillmann Lang from the fintech start-up Yova was convinced that the two trends of sustainability and technological change represent THE opportunity for the Zurich financial centre, as the location is well positioned for both topics and Zurich has a strong financial centre.

Cornelis van der Lugt from BSD Consulting explained that in Switzerland, young fintech start-ups often do not make a specific reference to the environmental and sustainability agenda. In contrast, the established, large financial institutions offer various products in the field of sustainable finance, but would still combine them little with digital technologies. The question is how the two players in Switzerland can be better networked in order to drive innovation in the field of green digital finance.

At the panel discussion moderated by Sabine Döbeli from Swiss Sustainable Finance, Martin Weymann from Swiss Re, Phlipp Aeby from RepRisk, Andreas Iten from fintech incubator F10 and David Gerber from the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters discussed opportunities and hurdles in the connection of the two trends for the Zurich financial centre.

Martin Weymann sees great potential for insurance companies in modelling risk analyses. The use of new digital technologies will lead to a massive acceleration of such processes due to the possibility of processing large amounts of data faster.

From Philippe Aeby's point of view, the points of contact between the two trends lie in the further development of business analytics. "The technology will lead to living sustainability," he was convinced.

Andreas Iten observes in his environment that younger fintech employees "already have sustainability topics in their DNA". In order to link the two trends, hackathons are a target-oriented, innovative instrument.

According to David Gerber, fintech and sustainable finance have been important innovation pillars of financial market policy for the federal government since 2016. Since then, a number of market access barriers have been removed. In the combination of the two trends, there is still potential: Fintech could help to make the sustainability topic a matter of course.

The panelists agreed that, in principle, the framework conditions at the Zurich location are ideal for benefiting from the two trends.

In her final vote, Anna Schindler, Director of Urban Development Zurich, stated that the foundation had been laid for a dynamic community at the interface of the two trends. She thanked all those involved in the event and invited the participants to the subsequent aperitif.