A DKK 10 million donation ensures focus on the future financial sector

Photo: Shutterstock/Crystal51

Raising money on the internet via crowdfunding is a popular strategy, but what does this mean for other players in the market, such as banks, who experience less demand for larger loans? How do you ensure that the new wave of small and medium-sized companies in Denmark that have to create growth and jobs have access to the stock market, just as large companies have?

These are just a few of the many questions that a new research project, led by CBS’ Center for Corporate Governance, will work on over the next four years. The project has been made possible through a donation of DKK 10 million and has a total budget on DKK 15 million.

Lars Ohnemus, Head of the Center for Corporate Governance and responsible for the research project, is looking forward to getting the project underway:

- The financial sector faces a number of major strategic challenges, both with new regulation and the new players who are going to affect the sector. Despite the challenges, it’s an area that has only had limited research interest in Denmark, says Lars Ohnemus.

He emphasizes that the project affects a lot of people, because the financial sector accounts for approximately 5% of Denmark’s gross domestic product and employs more than 53,000 people.

Major players from the financial sector are involved
The research project’s primary focus area is to examine the strategic and regulatory issues that affect the financial sector, and how to create the right framework conditions in a market with growing international competition.

To ensure that the research is relevant and workable in the financial world, CBS has established a partnership with players from the financial sector.

Among the economic contributors who have made the research project possible are the Financial Services Union Denmark (Finansforbundet), Danske Bank, Sparinvest, investment bank Carnegie, The Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Cooperative Banks in Denmark (Lokale Pengeinstitutter), The Danish Bankers Association (Finansrådet) and the Nordic Financial Union (NFU).

The project will, among other things, culminate in a comprehensive research report that offers a proposal for a favourable strategic position for the financial sector in Denmark. 

For more information please contact Lars Christian Ohnemus, Head of the Center for Corporate Governance, on Tel.: +45 5124 1875 or e-mail: lco.int@cbs.dk.

Facts about the research project
The project runs until 2018 and is structured as an open multi-disciplinary research project.

Researchers from CBS will contribute to the project, including three professors, Steen Thomsen, Georg Ringe and Niels Westergård-Nielsen. However, a number of foreign professors are also involved, including Professor Arturo Bris from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland and Professor Marc Steffen Rapp from Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany.

The general public will have access to research results related to the financial sector. The aim is to publish 12-14 articles within the relevant disciplines.

The project will produce a research report describing the strategic position of the entire sector including the competition situation, internationalization, regulatory and compliance factors and employment potential.