ICC Banking seminar to focus on the future of world financial markets

ICC, in partnership with ICC Monaco, will host the special session entitled “Rebuilding Financial Markets: the Way Forward.” The joint meeting of the ICC Financial Services and Insurance Commission and the ICC Corporate Economists Advisory Group, to be held on 17 June, will bring together an international body of high-level representatives from financial institutions, corporations, and civil society.

“The challenge for business leaders and financiers during a downturn is to find the right balance between pursuing many unprofitable investment opportunities and passing up many potentially profitable ones,” remarked Guy Sebban, ICC Secretary General. “In any case, it is crucial to build a vision of what could become financial markets in the long run.”

Apart from the discussion of regional financial perspectives, preliminary findings of ICC research conducted on the future of financial markets will also be presented.

Together, the sessions will provide a holistic view of the direction of the financial markets, which will in turn better prepare key institutions to make sound financial decisions. ICC hopes to elicit a high-level dialogue and provide a forum for the development of effective policy directives.

ICC, whose rules underpin the smooth transaction of international commerce on a day to day basis, has recognized the role that corporate governance has played and will continue to play on the operation of the global financial system.

Prominent speakers, including Dr Peter Strüven, Senior Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group, and Professor Lu Hongjun, President of the Shanghai Institute of International Finance, who will provide diverse views from regional, political, and ideological perspectives.

Other prominent speakers include Ashley Alder, Head of Asia Corporate, Herbert Smith, and former Board member and Executive Director of corporate finance at the Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong; David P. Frick, member of the executive board, Nestle Corporation; and Jacques Le Cacheux, Professor of Economics and Director of Research at the prestigious Sciences Po School in Paris.

Despite the current global financial crisis, ICC’s goal is to ensure that the challenges the financial community faces will be addressed proactively and successfully and that the lessons of the current recession will lead to the formation of a stronger international financial system.

Three workshops are scheduled. The first will address the current state of trade finance and businesses’ ability to ensure the smooth flow of trade. The session will also examine forecasts for trade at the macro level in different markets and regions.

A second panel will address the deep-seated problems and the driving forces behind the financial markets today and consider the long-term effect and the potentially unintended consequences of recent actions by governments and central banks to deal with the recession.

A third panel will consider the best practices for assessing underlying risks in the financial markets and discuss how legislators, supervisors and private institutions can best adapt to the new environment.