3rd Market Access Seminar

On 11 December 2020 the AEA-EAL, together with the World Trade Institute in Berne and the Swiss law firm Prager Dreifuss Ltd, as a co-organiser, conducted a webinar about Financial Services in Europe in the Global Context Bridges and Ditches for Switzerland. The AEA-EAL and two co-organisers have, in the last two years, successfully launched annual conferences on market access. As this year, for well known reasons, such a conference could not be held, they organized a virtual conference. At this conference, which attracted an important number of people, we hosted Stefan Flückiger, Deputy State Secretary and Christoph König, Head Policy Issues & International Relations of the Swiss State Secretariat for international Finance (SIF). Their presentations gave an excellent overview on Switzerland as an important financial center and its possible ways on how to build „bridges” towards the EU and the UK. The two speakers also explained the global context of the financial services area and informed about future markets and sector growth and where future wealth and clients will be situated. They concluded that European markets will remain important, demographic growth in Asia be marginal and that the US will still matter for wealth and asset management. For Switzerland bilateral financial dialogues as well as multilateral relations, in particular the G20/OECD, will therefore also in the future be important tools to be present in the international financial services world.