Berlin, 20 June 2024 – The European Association of Cooperative Banks’ (EACB) organised the inaugural edition of its Global Cooperative Banking Forum on June 20 at Berlin. High-level speakers discussed global risks and trends faced by cooperative banks, from financial stability to climate and ESG risks, as well as non-financial reporting.
Nina Schindler, CEO of the EACB, opened the event “thank you to our guest speakers for animating our programme. We are excited at the EACB Secretariat for bringing this initiative to life, inspired by the EACB’s expanding global presence and the convergence of international banking regulations and standards”.
In the first fireside chat, Rupert Thorne, Deputy Secretary General of the Financial Stability Board (STB), and Daniel Quinten, EACB President and Member of the Board at the National Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR), touched upon climate change, liquidity and interest rate risk, new players in banking, and cybersecurity as critical themes for global financial stability – a wakeup call for risk managers to navigate persistent volatility.
Jean Boissinot, Head of the Network for Greening the Financial System Secretariat at Banque de France, Vincent Maagdenberg, Chief Risk Officer at Rabobank and Darlene Mattiske-Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Military Bank, shared their views on climate and ESG risk. They emphasised innovation, integrating climate and ESG awareness into governance, and highlighted knowledge sharing and data as key to achieving net-zero.
The final panel discussion discussed the future of data and international non-financial reporting, stressing the need for standard interoperability across jurisdictions for accurate reporting by cooperative banks, and a comprehensive sustainability governance, seeing reporting as a management exercise rather than merely compliance. Panellists included Sue Lloyd, Vice Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board, Marco Frikkee, KPMG Netherlands Partner Sustainability Reporting, Hirotaka Hideshima, Counsellor on Global Strategy to President and the Board of Directors at Norinchukin Bank and member of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Christian Hofer, Head Sustainability, Political Affairs & Cooperative at Raiffeisen Switzerland.
Closing the Forum, Mr. Quinten, EACB President, noted “I am very grateful to Berliner Volksbank for hosting at their premises the 1st Global EACB Cooperative Banking Forum. The presence of high-level guests from the global supervisory and standard setting community is a testament to the global relevance of the cooperative banking movement. Our discussions today shed light on some of the most urgent themes in today’s regulatory and supervisory debate and recalled us of the natural vocation of cooperative banks as long-term oriented and prudent risk managers”.
Detlef Fechtner, Chief reporter at the German financial newspaper Börsen-Zeitung, moderated the discussions.