NEWSLETTER of November 22, 2024

The following content has been added at finexpert:

Deloitte
DIGITAL BANKING MATURITY 2024
We have the pleasure to present Digital Banking Maturity 2024, the 6th edition of the world’s largest survey on digital maturity of banks. Its history commenced back in 2016 in Poland, when 15 entities operating on the Polish market were surveyed. Each subsequent edition of the report included a growing number of entities surveyed and more geographies. In this edition, we have surveyed 349 banks in 44 countries on six continents, and obtained nearly 4,500 answers. >more

Morgan Stanley | Oliver Wyman
LONGEVITY UNLOCKED — RETIRING IN THE AGE OF AGING: GLOBAL WEALTH AND ASSET MANAGEMENT 2024 REPORT
One of the defining positive trends in the past century has been the steady upward march of life expectancy worldwide. But, for all the wonderful things this has given us, it has ushered in an “Age of Aging” that has created a massive financial problem for many countries and individuals. Greater longevity has been compounded by falling birth rates across much of the developed world, straining public pension systems that were built for another era and, consequently, driving policy regimes that have shifted the retirement burden from the state or corporation onto the individual. As a result, a large portion of the world’s citizens face a daunting challenge: how to ensure a desirable and dignified lifestyle post-retirement. >more

KfW Research
GERMAN PRIVATE EQUITY BAROMETER Q3 2024
The business climate on the German private equity market has fallen significantly for the second time in a row. The business climate indicator lost 19.0 points to -39.6 balance points in the third quarter of 2024. The indicator has thus fallen to a new 4-year low; in recent years, sentiment has only been worse during the coronavirus shock. After the assessment of the current business situation had already slumped in the previous quarter, although the outlook had not deteriorated quite as much, the assessment of business expectations is now also falling. >more

KfW Research
GERMAN VENTURE CAPITAL BAROMETER Q3 2024
The VC business climate in Germany has improved further and is now back in line with the long-term average. In the third quarter of 2024, the business climate indicator for the early-stage segment gained 8.7 points to -0.4 balance points. While the assessment of business expectations stabilized with a slight increase, the assessment of the business situation rose significantly. As a result, the indicator light for the current business situation has now also changed from red to yellow. >more

BIODIVERSITY RISK
Stefano Giglio, Theresa Kuchler, Johannes Stroebel, and Xuran Zeng
2023
We explore the effects of physical and regulatory risks related to biodiversity loss on economic activity and asset values. We first develop a news-based measure of aggregate biodiversity risk and analyze how it varies over time. We also construct and publicly release several firm-level measures of exposure to biodiversity risk, based on textual analyses of firms' 10-K statements, the holdings of biodiversity-related funds, and a large survey of finance professionals, regulators, and academics. Exposures to biodiversity risk vary substantially across industries in a way that is economically sensible and distinct from exposures to climate risk. We find evidence that biodiversity risks already affect equity prices: returns of portfolios that are sorted on our measures of biodiversity risk exposure covary positively with innovations in aggregate biodiversity risk. However, our survey indicates that market participants do not perceive the current pricing of biodiversity risks in equity markets to be adequate. We also construct several measures of biodiversity risk exposure across U.S. counties, but find little evidence that those exposures are priced in municipal bond markets. >more

GOLD'S VALUE AS AN INVESTMENT
Urban J. Jermann
2024
This paper presents an approach for pricing gold from investors' perspective. The model is based on no-arbitrage principles with minimal structural assumptions. There is no need to specify investor preferences. When fitted to match 10-year real US Treasury rates the model can replicate the salient fluctuations in the time series of gold prices since 2007. The model is also able to capture key patterns of CME Comex gold futures prices. The model implies that the majority of the value of gold is due to its role as an investment asset. >more