The world is at a crossroads

At our recent event in Germany we discussed geopolitics, global challenges, megatrends and their impact on capital markets.

15 Nov 2024 . 3 mins read

NatWest CEO of Commercial and Institutional (C&I), Robert Begbie, joined Michael Strafuss, Country Head Germany and Head of Customer Sales, Markets Europe and Thomas Jakob, CEO, NatWest Bank Europe, as well as other NatWest colleagues from Frankfurt, to host an event on 31 October. The event brought together industry leaders and specialists, for an insightful evening of thoughtful discussion, and networking.

Germany in the midst of change

The evening began with an opening address from Robert Begbie, that was followed with an update from Oliver Behrens, president of Frankfurt Main Finance, and then Wolfgang Bosbach, lawyer and former member of parliament (1994-2017), delivering the opening keynote ‘Germany in the midst of change’.

Michael Strafuss reflected on the keynote:

“In an inflationary world with dramatic geopolitical tensions, the “German Angst” is back, and the country seems to be semi-paralysed by their two biggest fears they once thought they’d left behind a century ago. In order to navigate this, Germany must lead by example in Europe with a clear vision for the future and for competitiveness or will undoubtedly face further economic decline.”

Throughout the evening a wide range of speakers led discussions on a number of important topics, some takeaways from which are included here.

Pre-US election

The first panel, moderated by Caroline Haas, Head of Climate & ESG Capital Markets, NatWest, featured Ben Hodges, Lieutenant General, US Army (retired); Dr Jan-Philipp Burgard, former US-correspondent for ARD and editor-in-chief, Welt TV; Tim Armbruster, Senior Vice President/Group Treasurer, KfW.

The panel highlighted the importance of interconnectivity between military operations and considered the potential impact of the US election results on the global geopolitical situation. The panel also discussed disentanglement of the US/EU- concluding that to be a ‘critical issue’, impacting global capital streams.

Central Banks: Forward-thinking pillars of stability

The second panel, moderated by Imogen Bachra, Head of Economics and Markets Strategy, NatWest, featured Christoph Maron, Head of Trading, Asset Management, Swiss National Bank; Elie Lewi, Head of Markets Directorate, Banque de France; Jan de Wit, Head of Financial Markets Department, National Bank of Belgium; Jared Noering, Global Head of Fixed Incoming Trading, NatWest.

The panel discussed the composition and drivers of central bank balance sheets. Drivers included the stance on monetary policy, as well as aspects of liquidity, safety, and return. A lively debate on currency and product class diversification, was had, in the context of reserves management. The debate concluded that ESG and product diversification remains of utmost importance, with gold operations on the rise, and currency diversification reaching a stable phase. Reliable liquidity providers were also presented as a key success factor when it comes to implementing the central banks’ objectives.

Pictured: (left to right) Imogen Bachra, Christoph Maron, Jared Noering, Jan de Wit, Elie Lewi.

Data centres & decarbonisation – a crossroads?

The third panel, moderated by Lennart Piro, Director Project Finance & Infrastructure Finance, NatWest, featured Oliver Menzel, CEO Maincubes Holding & Service GmbH and Waldemar Maurer, Partner DTCP.

The session considered opportunities and challenges Oliver, as an entrepreneur with an ambition to build a leading European data centre platform, has faced. Challenges included not having a ‘track record’ and so not being able to win customers upfront. Customers can help with securing finance, to ultimately establish the data centre and build the track record (chicken and egg conundrum). On the other hand, the growing market need for computational capacity presented an opportunity to establish a leading data centre operator. Waldemar discussed the role of DTCP in Maincubes, and the importance of ESG in Maincubes’ operations. He explained Maincubes’ waste heat recovery concept, and how their data centres, with a standardised green design, have been built with the requirements of the German energy efficiency act in mind.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to learn more about the topics discussed during our event, you can reach out to Michael Strafuss.

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