At the Hamburg Summit last weekend, a great deal of attention was paid to climate issues including green finance. The G20 understands “green finance” as the financing of investments that provide benefits in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development. China flagged the issue in the G20 under its presidency last year by establishing the Green Finance Study Group within the Finance Track.
Since a scenario in which a low interest rate environment extends for a long time into the future cannot be ruled out, it is important to assess its possible impact on financial institutions in order to identify the appropriate responses. The main vulnerabilities for life insurance companies and pension funds would result from maturity and yield mismatches between assets and liabilities.