The demand for sustainable financial products is massive, but smart regulations are needed to ensure that these products are indeed sustainable, says Simon Tribelhorn. The Liechtenstein Bankers Association is involved in preparing these.

In Switzerland alone, the demand for sustainable financial products is currently estimated at 700 million Swiss francs, Simon Tribelhorn, director of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association, writes in an opinion piece for the Liechtenstein newspaper Wirtschaft regional. This makes it all the more important to ensure that these products are indeed sustainable, given that sustainability is becoming more and more a question of credibility. “As such, it requires transparency,” Tribelhorn writes. An expert group of the EU has now presented proposals for concrete measures to address this. They recommend an EU-wide taxonomy for sustainable activities, standards for green bonds, and benchmarks for what can be regarded as low-carbon. Altogether, these proposals would be sensible and have an impact, according to Tribelhorn.

The Liechtenstein Bankers Association is now participating in a stakeholder dialogue on this topic organized by the EU Commission in Brussels because it sees itself “as a part of the solution and not the problem”. As Tribelhorn explains, blind faith in the market is just as unhelpful as inaction out of fear of making mistake, adding that politicians have a central role to play as legislators and regulators. The EU is clearly the “pace-setter” in the area of sustainable investments, says Tribelhorn, and the Liechtenstein Bankers Association is open to such regulations.

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