News
Shaping the Digital Finance Ecosystem for the Future
Alexis Le Portz
Chief Digital Officer
ODDO BHF
“Frankfurt Digital Finance is the first real ecosystem event in this town.”
Last week, the first edition of "Frankfurt Digital Finance" took place in Frankfurt. Numerous decision-makers and innovators from the financial industry, representatives from companies and start-ups, politics, public authorities and science met at the conference on 12 February 2020 to discuss innovation, digitization and other future topics that will affect the financial industry.
The future of the financial ecosystem
In a panel discussion, five experts from the financial and tech industry and ODDO BHF Chief Digital Officer Alexis le Portz focused on the development of the financial ecosystem. In particular, the discussion was driven by key factors that make Fintech's successful in the financial industry. In this context, cultural aspects and regional structures play an important role. From the Franco-German perspective of the ODDO BHF Group, there can be seen some differences in the ecosystems in Germany and France.
The structures of the fintech scene in France are developing in parallel to the centralized structure of the country. The ecosystem is more mature and platforms like “France Fintech” are playing a key role in uniting the global Fintech Community.
Frankfurt is on its ways to build such a strong fintech community as well. As the largest financial center in Germany, it has all the key factors to get more attractive and to establish a network throughout the regions. Community conferences such as "Frankfurt Digital Finance" play an important role to contribute to this goal.
Besides Alexis Le Portz, the following five experts took part in this discussion:
- Laura Wirtz, Head of Strategy, ING
- Dr. Sebastian Schäfer, Managing Director, Tech Quartier
- Christopher Schmitz, Partner EMEA Financial Services, Ernst & Young
- Dr. Daniel Bartsch, Co-Founder & COO, Creditshelf
- Uzi Scheffer, CEO SOSA, Tel Aviv
More about innovation at ODDO BHF
> Innovation, a key driver of the ODDO BHF group's growth
(Photo credits go to: Dirk Beichert BusinessPhoto / Bettina Beichert)
Our news
Equities remain unmatched over the long term
Three British economists—Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton of the London Business School, and Elroy Dimson from Cambridge University—have embarked on a meticulous endeavour: they have traced 35 stock markets around the world as far back as possible to test a core theoretical question of investment. Are equities truly superior to all other asset classes over the long term?
The moment of truth for public debt
Economic crises leave a legacy of high public debt. Expansion phases should be used as an opportunity by governments to reduce their debt and rebuild some headroom in their public finances. This is easier said than done. Let’s look at what happened after the last two major crises.
The end of the American dream?
We must confess that we have a strategic "bias" in favor of the US market. The past 15 years proves us quite right. Since the end of the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis, Europe has outperformed for only 27 months, or just over 2 years. This structural outperformance of the US vs. Europe is mainly explained by a more robust EPS dynamic in the US.