New Perspectives - Cooperation with the Moscow Financial Centre
The Frankfurt financial centre supports the city of Moscow in developing its position as a central financial centre in Eastern Europe and, beyond that, as an international financial centre. The prelude to this intense cooperation of the two financial centres took shape in the form of a joint round table at Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen in December 2008, at which representatives from both sides signed an agreement that outlined the topic fields of cooperation. During a “Financial Centre Day” in Moscow in June 2009, the next step of a specific work programme was developed. The dimensions and perspectives of cooperation are clearly outlined.
The Frankfurt and Moscow financial centres can already look back to many years of cooperation in the areas of the promotion of economic development and location development. In December 2008, with the signing of a cooperation agreement and the "Memorandum of Understanding," this was extended by a new and promising perspective.
The Memorandum of Understanding
It was therein agreed that the Frankfurt financial centre will support Moscow in its desired development as an international financial centre. In addition to a promotion of commercial cooperation, the primary focus is an academic exchange on topics related to financial markets. For this purpose, a joint round table at Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen identified the topic fields of the joint work, which were recorded in the agreement.
As representatives of Frankfurt, the agreement was signed by Volker Hoff, at that time Hesse Minister for Federal and European Affairs, Uwe Becker, treasurer of the city of Frankfurt am Main, and Dr. Lutz Raettig, speaker of the presidency of Frankfurt Main Finance. For the cooperation on the part of Moscow, the agreement was signed by Juri Rosljak, Deputy Mayor, Sergey Pakhomov, chairman of the State Debt Committee of the city of Moscow, and Mikhail Kalinushkin, general manager of the Financial Agency.
The signing of the "Memorandum of Understanding": (from left to right) Mikhail Kalinushkin (general manager; Financial Agency), Juri Rosljak (Deputy Mayor of the city of Moscow), Sergey Pakhomov (chairman of the State Debt Committee of the city of Moscow), Volker Hoff (at that time, Hesse Minister for Federal and European Affairs), Dr. Lutz Raettig (speaker of the presidency of Frankfurt Main Finance), Uwe Becker (treasurer of the city of Frankfurt am Main).
Moscow is a partner
As a commercial and financial location, the Moscow financial centre has a high degree of attractiveness for Western companies and institutions. Within Eastern Europe, it forms the largest financial centre. Questions of risk management and legal and organisational framework likewise play an important role, as do questions of regulation and supervision in the cooperation of the financial centres.
Many years of cooperation at the universities
This cooperation is based on many years of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management working together with the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education "Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation" (Moscow, Russia). The core of these two institutions forms a joint extra-occupational MBA in Finance, which began its first classes in the autumn of 2007. This course of study is directed at specialist employees and executive personnel from the financial industry in Russia who wish to develop their management expertise for a career in the financial industry. The training events take place in Moscow and are supplemented by a "Business Week" at the Frankfurt financial centre.
An initial project of a lighthouse nature in the cooperation of the financial centres is connected to this and concerns the Frankfurt Institute for Risk Management and Regulation (FIRM), which serves the side of Moscow as a model for its own institute for risk management. In addition to a transfer of know-how, a permanent exchange of advisers and students is also planned here. The challenges in the topic fields of risk management and regulation signify a factor of international competition, not only for Moscow. Frankfurt Main Finance, which, with the preparation (both in terms of content and organisation) of the round table and the Moscow conference, stated the initiative for the cooperation of the two financial centres, functions as a central coordination office.
