Harvard Law School’s Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) hosted its eleventh annual Symposium on Building the Financial System of the Twenty-first Century: An Agenda for Europe and the United States on March 21-23 at the SwissRe Centre for Global Dialogue in Rüschlikon Switzerland. Co-hosted by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the event gathered over a hundred senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking arenas, law, and academia.

“We had a good discussion on the future of the Eurozone, as the events in Cyprus were unfolding,” said Hal Scott, PIFS director and Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems at HLS. “We also discussed key issues relating to capital markets, financial regulation, and international finance. The Symposium provided a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and views across the Atlantic.”

Participants addressed the following topics:

  • The New Financial Paradigm, Volcker, Vickers and Liikanen: implications for business models, supervision and stability
  • Reciprocity and extraterritoriality in post-crisis rules and its Impact on Trans-Atlantic Financial Markets
  • The Role of Long-term Investors and long term investment instruments in economic growth
  • The implications of Cyprus for Europe and the U.S.

Commissioner Dan Gallagher of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission delivered the opening keynote address. Public sector keynote remarks were also made by Ms. Susan Baker, U.S. Treasury financial attaché for Europe, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Mr. Jean-Pierre Danthine, vice chairman, Swiss National Bank; Mr. Peter Praet, member of the executive board, European Central Bank; and Mr. Karl Soukup, acting director, European Commission, DG Competition, Financial Services Directorate. Mr. Hermann Geiger, Group Management Board, group general counsel, Swiss Re provided keynote remarks from the private sector perspective.

Founded in 1986, the Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) fosters the exchange of ideas on capital markets, financial regulation, and international financial systems through its portfolio of Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century. PIFS also conducts research and organizes special events on these topics.

For more information on the program, visit their website.