On 5 September 2024, over 280 international experts met for a SUERFBAFFI Bocconi highlevel panel discussion on the topic “Do we still need banks?”

Banks have played a central role in Western economies since the start of the industrial revolution. Their unique characteristic is to use low cost funding obtained via deposits to lend to the real economy. Lately their core position in the financial system has been facing a multitude of challenges:
• Deposit competition from money market funds (and perhaps soon also from Central Bank Digital Currencies)
• Lending to the real economy via nonbank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) steadily growing (globally the size of NBFIs is already close to that of the banking sector)
• Banks’ marketmaking role in government bond trading is under threat from trading firms (this has already materialized in the US; it is also quickly growing in euro area fixed income markets)
• Unresolved fragility of current bank structures and business models (see e.g. the recent failure of SVB, the collaps of Credit Suisse, and the unresolved „too big to fail“ problem)

Speakers and timeline:

00:00:13 –Ernest Gnan, Secretary General, SUERF: Welcome and Introduction
00:04:05 – Martin Scheicher, Adviser, SSM I ECB and SUERF Fellow: Introductory presentation “Do we still need banks?
00:11:35 – Panel “Do we still need banks?” Introduction and moderation by Marja Nykänen, Deputy Governor, Bank of Finland
00:15:22 – Matt Plosser, Financial Research Advisor Banking Studies, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
00:25:44 – Clara Raposo, ViceGovernor, Banco de Portugal
00:39:53 – Stefan Ingves, Senior Fellow at the Swedish House of Finance I former Governor, Sveriges Riksbank
00:58:37 – Thorsten Beck, Director, Florence School of Banking and Finance I Professor, European University Institute and SUERF Fellow
01:14:01 – Q&A
01:25:31 – Ernest Gnan: Concluding remarks and farewell

Presentation slides: https://www.suerf.org/events/dowest...
© SUERF 2024.
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