Witnessing serious crisis for long years, financial thought leaders have now come up with an agreement towards driving a better future for finance. Recently held, CFA Institute’s 67th Annual Conference highlighted the same focus. On the other hand, Globescan after researching with major financial institutes and banks has identified areas that should be given primary focus in the industry. The industry is thus foreseeing a better future with thought leaders and major players are coming together with the same consensus.

The CFA Institute’s 67th Annual Conference – Few Excerpts

More than 1800 investment professionals gathered and shared their views during the conference. The idea was to join together and take initiative towards building an industry that serves better for the society. Three players – the growing industry size, technology and investors will play a leadership role in the future. When these three work together, a defined corporate governance and market structure can be built as desired. Besides, the digital age has filled in the information gap that has been a hurdle in the past years. Finally, the stakeholders need to play an important role in shaping the finance industry as a whole. The future of the industry should be focused towards long term investment by connecting finance with effective innovative ideas.

Globescan Research supported by BBVA, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and TD Bank Group

Globescan, a renowned research consultancy together with prominent industry leaders like BBVA, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs and TD Bank Group went through a study aiming for a prosperous and better serving finance industry. The study reflected the following;

  • Financial sector can play a crucial role in the world economy
  • This goal can be achieved by building a strong relationship between stakeholders and society
  • Transparent involvement between banks, stakeholders and government necessary for larger and long term prosperity.

In both the instances along with other similar researches and studies showcase few common facts that thought leaders have put down for a brighter future of finance.

Now let’s focus on these common facts:

  • Banks and Financial Institutions should play a larger social role. There have been debates among thought leaders on whether bank and financial institutions should be confined to allocating capital or should proactively participate in funding and advocating social welfare. However, they are in consensus that financial institutions, banks, government and other stakeholders together design a system for ensuring stability in the industry. They should play a larger role beyond their core functions towards the society and world economy.
  • Interconnectedness of stakeholders is crucial. The business world has witnessed that effective stakeholder management is the foundation of transparent business and long term success. Thought leaders in finance is equally in agreement with this. From investors to customers and shareholders, everyone is a stakeholder and effective engagement can ensure a prosperous relationship and positive outcome in the near future.
  • Effective leadership can be the real savior for the industry. In order to build a corporate culture and healthy engagement, effective leadership is needed. Bank culture majorly depends on the way it is governed. The overall culture needs to be shifted towards being responsive. Healthy engagement with customers and shareholders should be welcomed and an effective leadership method should be cultivated. This will lead to clear functioning and effectiveness across financial sectors.
  • Innovation is another striking factor for prosperous future. More than leveraging financial engineering, there should be ideas initiated for better flow and utilization of capital. Governments should rethink about taxation in long term ownerships and should promote long term savings. This would drive a positive change in the financial industry. Stakeholders should embrace initiatives to drive positive social and financial returns.

Thus, the world is seeking a positive change in the financial sector and with the above factors in place; the dream of a transparent and effective financial market can be brought to reality.

“We cannot re-write financial history but we can definitely write the industry future. It’s time to work together and make profound changes to make finance a powerful force, for Good.” – Courtesy: CFA Institute.

References:

  • https://www.cfainstitute.org/learning/future/pages/index.aspx
  • https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/
  • http://www.globescan.com/

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