Network reach
Interview with Edouard Cuendet, Director of the Geneva Financial Center Foundation
Edouard Cuendet, you have been Director of the Geneva Financial Center Foundation since 2014. Can you tell us about the Foundation's role?
The Fondation Genève Place Financière (FGPF) was created in 1991 by the 80 members of the Geneva Stock Exchange. As the umbrella organization of the financial center, its main mission is to ensure its attractiveness and competitiveness. It is therefore at the service of all players in the financial center. Geneva's financial sector currently generates some 38,000 jobs and contributes 13.1% of the region's GDP. It rests on three pillars: private and institutional asset management, commercial and retail banking, and commodity trade finance.
To preserve and, above all, develop this unique ecosystem, the FGPF Board has defined three priorities: a determined commitment to attractive framework conditions; dynamic promotion and communication; and the development of training by supporting apprenticeships, academic training and continuing education. One of Geneva's main assets as a financial center is its know-how. It is therefore essential to attract, train and retain talent capable of meeting current and future challenges. The FGPF makes its contribution by identifying the needs of financial players and working with the Département de l'Instruction Publique (DIP) and training institutes, including the ISFB, to develop appropriate responses.
Through you, the FGPF also sits on the ISFB Board. What are the links between the two institutions?
For some thirty years, the ISFB has played a major role in developing knowledge and maintaining the competitiveness of Geneva's financial center. The ISFB and the FGPF are therefore moving in the same direction, promoting the excellence of the financial center's employees. They are distinguished by their high level of employability, i.e. their ability to find a new job, to evolve independently in the job market and to progress in their careers. This employability depends to a large extent on the development of skills throughout one's working life. In this context, the ISFB is a key player in French-speaking Switzerland, alongside the HEG-Genève, the University of Geneva and the Swiss Finance Institute. In Geneva, we are fortunate to be able to count on these public and private sector organizations, which share a common objective: know-how must be cultivated through constant updating.
What do you see as the challenges for skills development in the banking sector in French-speaking Switzerland?
TheFGPF's 2023-2024 Economic Survey of Geneva banks, wealth managers and other financial intermediaries illustrates their good health and optimism for the year ahead. 4 areas of activity are considered priorities: fintech, sustainable finance, wealth management and compliance. Against this backdrop, the banks consider access to qualified specialists to be one of the greatest challenges facing the job market. To meet this need, training is an essential factor.
In the field of fintech, the study carried out by eforesight and HEG-Geneva, with the support of ISFB, provides a digital benchmarking of Swiss private banking players. Its conclusions highlight the scope for progress in this area. The FGPF observes that the digitization of certain financial activities is leading to a transformation of professions and an increased demand for continuing education. To meet this need, the HEG-Geneva and the ISFB are essential partners. The latter has developed a certificate entitled " Future of Finance " for banking staff, and offers modular courses on fintech as part of the regular revisions of the SAQ CWMA certification, from which employees working in wealth management benefit.
In September 2023, HEG-Genève and ISFB entered into a strategic partnership to roll out, from spring 2024, a unique continuing education program in banking management in French-speaking Switzerland, which has received the support of the FGPF. This initiative once again demonstrates the relevance of public-private partnerships.
ISFB is also active in the field of sustainability, thanks to the Sustainable Finance Certificate. This positioning is necessary to support a fundamental trend aimed at making Geneva a global hub for sustainability. In particular, employees in the banking sector need to be able to assess and identify ESG criteria and translate them into an appropriate investment strategy. This is one of the objectives of the above-mentioned certificate.
Training is also a response to the uncertainties linked to the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in terms of workforce development. The importance of skills assessments and maintaining a professional network is indisputable. Here, too, the role of the ISFB is crucial insupporting banking specialists in their professional transition.
Edouard Cuendet
Director
Geneva Financial Center Foundation
"The ISFB makes perfect sense in supporting banking specialists in their professional transition.
Strategic Business Area 4
Network reach
As a professional association, ISFB operates within an ecosystem made up of numerous stakeholders: on the one hand, the member institutions, their employees and the general public interested in banking and finance. On the other, public and private players, training centers and universities, who work in the fields of initial or continuing training, and career development and consulting. What they all have in common is that they are active in the management of banking and financial skills.