Sibos 2020: View from the Top with Jean Lemierre, Chairman of the Board of Directors, BNP Paribas

[Music] do [Music] [Laughter] foreign [Music] [Music] ladies and gentlemen welcome bonjour from paris and thanks for joining us for this unusual and virtual edition of cybos 2020. my name is nicola clark and i'm going to be moderating this session giving you a view from the top of one of europe's leading financial institutions i'm very pleased to have with us today mr jean-lumiere who is the chairman of bmp paribas many of you know zhong already having either worked with him or know him from his distinguished reputation he has of course had a long and distinguished career in international finance he first joined bnp paribas in 2008 which was itself a challenging moment for your industry and for the global economy before he became chairman in 2014 he served as bmp's representative with regulators economic officials and political leaders jean thank you very much for joining us today we're going to be talking about the challenges of this unusual moment and we want to know how you see it as a banker of course but also as a european and as a global corporate citizen these have been a very difficult six months there's a public health crisis and a financial crisis and all this uncertainty that that brings and we just wanted to hear a little bit about how this period has been for you here at bmp paramount and what your priorities have been first good to be with you and i i like your question about what has happened uh definitively it was a health crisis and it is still a health crisis but i wouldn't have said it is a financial crisis there's no crisis in finance i would say for once this is not a banking or a financial crisis it's a massive crisis coming from a pandemia it has an economic impact but so far the financial sector has done well i would say in a more cautious way the financial sector has done its job okay and this is crucial absolutely crucial for the future we have known a totally different situation in 2008 2010 that i agree but now maybe because of the work which has been done over the 10 last years the financial sector has done a good job what were the priorities because this is probably your question what what what was on our minds i think we had two main questions the first one let us support the clients that was a time of massive disruption no business no flow of income massive difficulties in the corporate sector markets were shut down for some time there was no access to liquidity and these companies had a massive need for liquidity in europe we have balance sheets we have used the balance sheets of the banks and notably in ben pepe bar to lend to the economy to offer liquidity and that was crucial because when you offer liquidity to large companies they can pay their suppliers they can pay their employees and you help the economy to survive that was the first priority and we have done it in a massive way you may know that ben pepa has offered lending to the economy to the corporate sector in march and april in a massive way and the bank has been working hard and has delivered that was the first priority the second priority was where is still the infrastructure the payment infrastructure and we're in a conference organized by swift and i would like to say this because most of the time this is not visible to the people people don't understand that behind the machines behind the banks behind the shops there is a real strong efficient infrastructure to make sure that payments can be done and as far as i know there was no disruption it's remarkable that at the time of my massive crisis and people were worried payments were done and even most of the clients haven't seen it they see it as so obvious so normal that they do not acknowledge the efficiency of the system and swift is part of it we are part of it all of us we are part of it and i must say that the teams have done a great job together making it efficient working smoothly and making sure that payments were done so these were the priorities i hope i've convinced you that we have done the job well it's very reassuring certainly um would you care to talk a little bit about how you see the next 12 to 18 months playing out i think we are unfortunately in the same situation economy is recovering are we in a v or a k shape i would say we have been in the v because the rebound is sharp at the beginning and then it's slower so we know we'll continue to accompany clients to make sure they can work in an efficient way probably we shall see some increase in the risks of the banks because some clients will have difficulties we have to face this and we have to use the capital we have put aside to face this situation that agree but we have also to prepare the future and in being papayabar we are very committed not only to support clients in difficulties but to support new projects developments and there are many and fortunately business leaders are very active the smaller the big ones they want to grow they want to go back they want to work they have ideas and i think we need to be there to finance them same for the payment system to use the same pattern as the one i have used a few minutes ago we have a great initiative in europe which is the epi the european european payment initiative which is a great initiative taken by 16 or 18 banks to develop a new payment system using new technologies fitting well with the digital devices so this is an initiative for the future so we have many projects so supporting the existing clients developing new ones that's the commitment we need to have i would like to add one comment which is crucial in our conference we have been helped in a massive way by the official sector central banks have done a good job regulators have taken appropriate measures to support what we do and of course governments have fueled spendings and supporting people in the economy so this is a teamwork this is probably the first time i see such a teamwork between the banking sector and the official sector to be polite i should say the official sector but working together hopefully we shall be able to address the challenges of the month and years to come so i was wondering if you could talk to us a little bit more about any other initiatives that that could be done to harden or future proof the infrastructure of the banking sector for the next crisis that comes along may i mention the initiatives taken around an industry standard api that's crucial to make sure that in the future systems can operate together can be connected swift is doing a good job and doing a good job making sure to be inclusive and swift is a very good if i mss or platform or place or forum to make sure it is inclusive having in mind the number of clients of swift putting people together to work in a structured way and deliver well so the api initiative yes very important for the future once more it's like most of the questions related to infrastructure the public doesn't see this doesn't understand well but behind our systems behind our very sophisticated systems there's a lot of work once more people must be put together to work in a cohesive way and this forum will help i'm sure you you speak about this you share views about this and i i hope that the industry standard will be promoted uh quickly and efficiently so that's another example of what we need to do together um that's of course very encouraging and reassuring news to hear but of course these remain challenging times we're still living through this global pandemic we have the economic impact of that as you mentioned there's also mounting mounting evidence of a major environmental crisis that is uh that is building that's becoming more and more evident sort of a triple threat if you will and i'm wondering if you think that there's a risk that as governments you know approach their recovery plans that there might be uh a tendency to emphasize the first two elements of that without maybe addressing the environment with the same urgency i would i would probably uh say that first i agree with you this is a massive challenge but these uh this crisis is an opportunity to address notably the climate change challenge in europe we know this europeans are very committed to fighting against climate difficulties with a strong commitment european union has you may have seen that a core not not in the corner but at the core of the recovery plan in europe of 750 billion euro you have environment so recovery will be green and i hope it will be green because this is a unique opportunity to address this we shouldn't oppose the two we shouldn't oppose uh economic and social recovery and environment that would be foolish we should put them together we have to find a way to do it and i think banks are the core of this we have to be creative to find solutions helping investors a corporate sector individuals to address the challenges they want to address and offering them products approaches policies financial policies which can help them so hopefully the banking industry will take this into account i think in europe it's it's being done it is very high on my agenda it's very high on the agenda of my colleagues are you optimistic that it is equally high on the agendas in other regions of the world and other major economies i am i am i will not enter into the debate you want to drag me into but i am because this is an obvious challenge for everybody so in europe probably uh we we are a step before but when i look what's happening in china i'm highly encouraged when i look at what my american clients investors want when i meet american investors they speak to me about environmental questions so the understanding the knowledge of the of the debate and the willingness to move forward are very very high now we have one question which is difficult and probably that should be the focus for the months ahead is how do we measure this we know what to do in europe we have had a taxonomy approach so we know what is green or not green to make it simple but how to do it how to measure what we do that's going to be a key challenge if if i may add one comment to measurement i would like to use the word transition the job we have in the banking industry is not to make a decision about what is green and not green it is to make sure that what is not green begins to be greener and the measurement of transition from one situation to another situation is a big challenge it will require a lot of work to how to measure can you give me an example of how if you take a company an electricity company using a lot of coal you may hope that in the future you use less coal so we have decided not to finance coal but at the same time they need to invest in other activities wind solar so we need to measure what they do we need to make sure that when they take commitments and commitments should be taken we know how to measure measure this and how to monitor the success to make sure that the loans we make are efficient from that point of view if you take the shipping industry you have the same situation engines can be improved to use quote-unquote better fuel or less polluting fuel and the measurement of this over time will be crucial for the banking industry so financing the transition is probably what we shall have to do in the future more and more and we have to work together accounting firms ngos rating agencies corporate sector banking asset management insurance we have to work together to make sure we can have a clear measurement meaning a clear understanding quantified understanding of what's happening is there and also a sort of an incentivization that needs to go along with that process as well because if there are commitments they have to be respected and they have to make sure they are respected they have to be measured can we also i wanted to talk also before we before we end our time with you is to get us a sense of what your views are on some of the uncertainties about the events that are expected this fall in particular the elections in the united states and obviously brexit is a is a very is at the forefront of many people's minds at this time of year well in the limited time we we we have may i pick up the brexit question yes which is closer to me you know uh well brexit as you know our point of view and fortunate it will happen of course it has been decided by the british people and it's being negotiated with you so it will happen i hope it will happen in the best way as possible i hope there is some kind of agreement but whatever happens i'm quite sure that supervisors and regulators will make sure that it is implemented as smoothly as possible i trust the ecb i trust the bank of england to have fair discussions to avoid of course any kind of disruption and difficulties so i'm confident they will smoothen the process from a technical point of view to avoid any tensions or adverse tensions at the same time in vain paper alibaba we we know that clients are worried about this rightly so so we are prepared to vary a scenario various options and of course we are committed supporting them working with them facing difficulties they may have so we are ready to do it and uh we shall do the job with them terrific um any thoughts on on what the the risk connected to the u.s elections might bring it's the risk of democracy democracy is of course the best regime we are used to this and we need to accept this that there are changes and there are changes of policies this is the right of the people you know we banks we have to finance the economy we and we we have to adapt we shall adapt you know united states great democracy i have no no fear and we shouldn't have uh once more we are a large bank european based we know how to operate in the u.s with american clients we trust them we have very good and it's going to be fine let's avoid creating risks when there's no risk very good well jean you are clearly so passionate about all of these topics and i wish we could go on but i think we're going to need to end it here thank you for being so generous with your time and for all of your insights today and thanks to you all out there for joining us hopefully we can be back together live and in person for cybos 2021. until then be well and a bientot

Channel: SibosTV

Views: 337

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Corporates, Sustainability

Id: w5nUPwMHQBg

Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021