a complete overhaul of regulation of the financial sector became necessary. we must be aware of the main lessons that must be drawn from the crisis : a ) the financial sector is not self - equilibrating or self - correcting ; b ) an unfettered financial sector can generate crisis on its own ; c ) extended periods of high growth of credit and debt generate asset price booms that always end in a crisis ; d ) low inflation in the market of goods and services is not enough to guarantee financial stability. human societies have learnt and forgotten these lessons several times throughout history. misbehaviour by big financial institutions, deregulation and perverse incentives created this time the perfect storm that will continue for a long period of time to cause low growth and severe unemployment. new regulation will have to contribute to the taming of the sector ’ s tendency to expand beyond proportion. finally, a reform of the global monetary system is necessary to solve the recurrent problem of global macroeconomic imbalances that may lead to new crises in the future. regarding europe, besides the already mentioned changes in economic governance and crisis management, structural reforms are required to create new sources of economic growth that are necessary to survive in a very competitive world and to keep essential parts of our social model in the face of europe ’ s collective demographic suicide. deep down, we all know that europe is again in a defining moment and is going through an existential crisis. last year, the german philosopher jurgen habermas in his new book “ europe, the faltering project ” wrote : “ for the first time in the process of european unification we face the danger of a regression behind the stage of integration already achieved. ” this sense of impending crisis is recurrent in european history. in his great book the europeans, luigi barzini, in 1983, described europe in a very apt way : ” it is pessimistic, prudent, practical, parsimonious, like an old - fashioned banker.... it always prefers to wait and see. it enjoys delving into the complexity of things ; the more complexities it can find the better. europe looks for nuances, the bad side of anything good, the good side of anything bad ”. this does not mean that europe is paralyzed. in moments of doubt we can always turn to the great man of action, one of europe ’ s founders, jean monnet, who reminded us that “ men only act in

sabine mauderer : the role of fintechs in green finance keynote speech by dr sabine mauderer, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the 4th german - singaporean financial forum “ grun - tech : how can fintechs and banks work hand in hand for sustainable finance ”, virtual event, 25 november 2020. * * * 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, i ’ m delighted to speak to you at the german - singaporean financial forum. singapore provides a wonderful example of how technology can facilitate a country ’ s sustainable economic transformation to create a liveable and prosperous metropolis. yet such a transformation requires capital. investors need to allocate their money accordingly – and transparent, comprehensive data combined with innovative technologies can lead the way by helping financial institutions identify green and sustainable projects and companies. admittedly, it is all very well to say that, but in practice still not quite as easy to do. that is why my focus today will be on how fintech companies can act as enablers of a greener financial system. 2 fintechs can be enablers … 2. 1 … by collecting climate - related data first, fintechs can facilitate the collection of data. currently, climate - related data is often not readily available. this typically leads to high search costs as investors and banks have to do their due diligence. in fact, the relevant data may not even be identified at all. as a result, climaterelated risk is not priced adequately. innovative solutions could help to identify and collect the necessary and relevant climate - related data. digital technologies such as artificial intelligence ( ai ), big data and blockchain offer opportunities to gather comprehensive data in a cost - efficient way. let me give you one example : thanks to automation and ai, the climate impact of a company ’ s activities can be captured from numerous sources at once – such as news feeds, sustainability reports or ngo ’ s activities. specialised fintechs can collect and assess more data points in less time compared to traditional data gathering approaches. 2. 2 … by analysing climate - related data secondly, fintechs can be enablers by analysing climate - related data. investors and banks can use such data in their analysis, modelling and evaluation of climaterelated risk and opportunity – or they can team up with fintechs offering specialized services in this field. often enough start - ups are faster in developing the necessary technological innovations than long -