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Frankfurt Notches a Win as Cities Fight for Green-Finance Crown

Frankfurt Notches a Win as Cities Fight for Green-Finance Crown

Frankfurt has chalked up a badly-needed victory over bigger European rivals in the race for a slice of the lucrative green finance industry.

The German city beat out London and other financial centers when it was named Wednesday as the main location of a new body for devising global sustainability disclosure standards.

Europe is a key driver of the booming sustainable finance market and its cities are keen to win the trillions of dollars of deal flow that will bring. While Frankfurt has traditionally been eclipsed by Paris and London, it has gained some ground due to the fallout from the U.K. quitting the European Union.

“The decision is a big success for Frankfurt as a financial center,” said Christian Sewing, the chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank AG who also heads the main German banking lobby. “Germany is already a leading location for sustainable finance. We want to build on that.”

The chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board will be based in Frankfurt, while offices in Montreal will be responsible for key support functions and “deeper co-operation with regional stakeholders,” the IFRS Foundation said in a statement on Wednesday.

Politicians across Germany worked to attract the ISSB. They were keen to avoid a repeat of the “lack of attention” they showed in 2017 when they lost out to Paris for the European Banking Authority headquarters, Joerg Kukies, a deputy finance minister, said in September.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.