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Context
The financial industry is a key sector for the French economy in terms of contribution to GDP (4.5%) and employment (700,000 jobs). It also represents a crucial lever for business growth and a means of maintaining control over French decision-making centers.
The aim of Finance Innovation is to strengthen the position of the Paris financial center in Europe by enhancing its expertise and offensive position in terms of research and innovation. The French Finance cluster is coordinated by Paris EUROPLACE and supported by asset management companies, insurance companies, banks, investment companies and issuers.
The strategy of the Paris financial center, a leading force in the global financial network, is based on five pilars:
- an asset management industry, a globally competitive hub that has built its reputation upon the quality of its expertise, innovative management instruments, and the strength of the industrial players within the international competition;
- an investment banking industry, driven by an equity derivatives arm and renowned skills in financial mathematics;
- highly competitive technology and distribution networks for investment products destined for the general public;
- in the field of insurance, a risk analysis center of excellence;
- a world-renowned center for training and research in economics and finance.
The Continental European financial industry is set to expand thanks to the combined effect of three main factors:
- natural growth, hand in hand with economic growth;
- structural growth linked to the heightened financialization of the economy;
- growth generated by fresh sources of demand: change in the system for financing pensions, sale of management services for assets originating in new economies.
The present period is propitious for transforming the position of the Paris financial center in the European financial arena:
- the steady consolidation of European liquidity and the fact that such liquidity will be accessible to all European players will change the terms of competition amongst European financial markets;
- the new long-term savings model is centered on specialized management vehicles, all of which are open to a broader and more fragmented market. This is consistent with the profile of the French collective investment management industry;
- the efficiency of distribution systems via banking and insurance networks and French collective investment management means that Paris is well placed to reap the benefits of open architecture UCITS distribution channels in Europe;
- the capacity to create sophisticated hedging instruments for new underlying assets, which extends an offering that is tailored to more specific requirements in terms of investor life cycles.
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Objectives
Since its official launch in July 2007, the Finance Innovation cluster has demonstrated its dynamism and its ability to:
- create synergies and the necessary conditions to foster innovative financial projects,
- support the development and financing of SME's and innovation,
- develop an ecosystem by organising exchanges between large firms, SME's, and academics,
- reinforce the globally-renowned research and training hub in finance and economics,
- contribute to the emergence of projects in social and environmental finance (carbon trading, climate indices, micro-finance).
Finance Innovation boosts and federates the marketplace potential in terms of research and innovation by bringing the academic and financial fields together. The cluster acts as a catalyst to accelerate the development of growth companies operating in the financial sector, and as a facilitator to evaluate, along with associated financial and academic players, tomorrow's market and technological stakes.
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