Pierre Perrin-Monlouis Dernière mise à jour: 20 octobre 2021
On Wednesday, Deutsche Bank’s Chief Executive Josef Ackermann, speaking in his role as Chairman of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the global association of financial institutions, presented a set of measures for overcoming the financial crisis. A press conference held for the release of the IIF’s Interim Report was attended in Frankfurt by many national and international representatives of the press and media.
“The leadership of our industry recognises its own responsibility in the financial crisis,” said Ackermann. The goal of the 375 financial services member firms of the IIF was to restore investors’ confidence and increase transparency in the financial markets. Together with IIF Managing Director Charles Dallara and the two IIF-Committee-Co-Chairmen Cees Maas (earlier CFO ING) and Rick Waugh (CEO Scotiabank), Ackermann presented recommendations of the IIF Committee on Market Best Practices for a “Code of Conduct”. Deutsche Bank’s Management Board Chairman concentrated on the following points:
Of central importance is increasing transparency. “Our industry needs to increase transparency in many aspects of its work,” Ackermann said. Structured financial products, above all, must be made more understandable for investors and the general public.
“Many financial firms need to improve their risk management.” The control function of the supervisory board with regard to risk management should be strengthened according to the IIF, for example, through the establishment of special risk committees.
“Another area where improved transparency is needed is compensation.” The criteria that performance-related compensation is based on should be made clear both to shareholders and to other stakeholders. In this respect, the IIF’s Interim Report proposes that performance-related compensation should be better aligned with long-term profitability, thus capital and revenues should both play a role here.
To prevent future crises, the IIF proposes a Capital Markets Monitoring Group. This independent group should comprise 10 to 20 highly respected financial experts and alert the industry to actual and potential vulnerabilities and market developments that pose systemic risks.
According to Ackermann, the IIF had benefited from close cooperation with regulatory authorities in preparing the Interim Report. The IIF intends to continue the dialogue with the industry’s regulators.
The publication of the report is particularly timely as G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will be meeting in Washington DC this Friday to consider actions that the international community needs to take to re-establish stability and confidence in the markets.
The final report, with more detailed recommendations is to be submitted by the IIF in Summer 2008.
