Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the Foreign Bankers’ Association (FBA) 30th anniversary

Amsterdam, 27 March 2023

Thank you for inviting me to the FBA’s 30th anniversary event. As I speak to you today, the global financial system is going through turbulent weeks. In the confluence of multiple challenges, often the very urgent trumps the similarly vitally important. It is tempting and frankly quite human to focus the attention on the most immediately pressing challenges.

Climate-related and environmental (C&E) financial risks might thus not seem the most obvious topic for a keynote speech at this moment. However, exactly one week ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Synthesis Report, according to which temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This worrisome observation reminds us that addressing the increasing…