In a joint declaration, about 40 banks, corporations, universities and non-governmental organisations committed to building sustainable financial sector infrastructures in May 2017.
The „Frankfurt Declaration“ was initiated by the Deutsche Börse. It represents the starting point of an open dialogue. The topics on the sustainability initiative's common agenda are:
- to define the framework conditions of sustainable finance and to put in place concrete initiatives to implement new structures
- to identify measures, products and services with a view to mobilising the potential of sustainable financial market infrastructures and using it to initiate positive economic, social and environmental development
- to identify the Frankfurt financial centre’s responsibility in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to define key indicators allowing the financial services sector to measure its contributions to achieving the sustainable development goals
- to align corporate governance with the principles of the UN Global Compact, the contents of the UNEP Statement of Commitment by Financial Institutions on Sustainable Development and/or the PRI Principles for Responsible Investment and to annually report on its progress in the respective format
The launch conference “Accelerating Sustainable Finance” in May 2017 featured discussions on all issues around the financial system's future viability and new ideas for sustainable business models. These topics will be elaborated by the initiative during the months following the launch. Commerzbank supports the initiative because of its importance in the financing of the energy transition but also because of its 14 million private and corporate clients, for which sustainable financial solutions play an increasingly larger role.
