Prof. Dr. iur. Kern Alexander

Kern Alexander is co-editor of EU Sustainable Finance: Regulation, Supervision and Governance published in Link

As Director, he will lead the center's interdisciplinary research and teaching programs in sustainable finance, law, science and the humanities. An important objective of the center is to disseminate academic knowledge through research and teaching on environmental and social sustainability.

Center of Competence for Sustainable Finance

In this year's programme bank board members from around the world participated. During the week a number of cutting edge issues confronting bank leaders, including financial market turbulance caused by the SVB bank failure, strategic issues arising from climate change and evolving risks in digital finance and blockchain were addressed. 

The Center for Legal Data Science (CLDS) and the Society of Commercial and Financial Law (SCFL), in association with Loyens & Loeff, invites academics, scholars, and practitioners with diverse perspectives from the civil and common law to present papers on recent developments in commercial and financial law.

Please submit your abstract of approx. 500 words (2'500 characters) by November 30, 2023 to the SCFL Secretariat at lst.alexander@rwi.uzh.ch. Submission of a full paper before the conference is optional. The Editorial Board will confirm whether your proposal is accepted by Mid December 2023.

Conference 2024 - Call for Abstracts

Credit Suisse Collapse, And Switzerland Went Back to Making Money

“The regulatory culture in Switzerland is weak and not based on a meaningful set of rules,” says Kern Alexander, chair of the law and finance program at the University of Zurich, “but instead on a light touch principles regime that leaves the regulator too much discretion not to take action and to allow problems to fester until they reach a breaking point.”

 Bloomberg Article, 4 August 2023

Monday, April 3rd 2023 at 12:15pm in RAA-G-01

(extra credit will be provided for the students attending the event)

The International Monetary Fund invited Kern Alexander to present his paper ‘Banking Regulation and Climate Change’ at a high level seminar hosted by the IMF at its headquarters in Washington DC on 29-30 June 2022.

Professor Alexander, along with Rosa Lastra, published an essay, "International Banking Regulation and Climate Change" in the Oxford Business Law Blog.

 Read the essay here.

Kern Alexander was Co-Director of the 2022 Oxford Bank Governance Programme held at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. Participants included directors and senior managers from leading banks and investment firms in Europe, the UK, Asia and Africa. Prof. Alexander led discussions on bank strategy, regulation and the legal duties of directors. Sustainable finance and cryptocurrencies were also important themes addressed throughout the week.  

Prof. Dr. Alexander is leading a research project on ‘Multinational Financial Sanctions’ supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.  It will analyse the implementation and enforcement of financial sanctions in G7 countries, the European Union and Switzerland and assess the institutional and legal challenges for having more harmonised financial sanctions regulations. 

Prof. Dr. Kern Alexander will be speaking about developments in ESG disclosure regulations in the EU and UK at the conference hosted by SwissHoldings and SWIPRA.

Prof. Dr. Kern Alexander will be giving a keynote lecture on sustainable finance and disclosures at the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities high-level conference on Financial Education and Literacy.

Prof. Kern Alexander gave the keynote lecture at the UBS Sustainable Finance Impact conference on November 4th 2021. He discussed recent developments in sustainable finance regulation in Europe and Switzerland and the preliminary results of his study analysing the preferences, attitudes and objectives of UBS customers towards sustainable finance and related legal developments in Switzerland.

We are pleased to invite you to the conference "International Financial Regulation and Sustainability - Implementation and Enforcement Challenges". The conference takes place virtually on 9 November 2021. If you are interested in virtually participating in the conference, please register by clicking on the following link: https://bit.ly/2Zrf6XL

Professor Alexander's most recent editorial blog piece for EU Law Live, commenting on the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in Pintar and Others v. Slovenia.

Dr Xenia Karametaxas’ newest publication on Sustainable Finance, ‘Sustainable Finance: Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Gesetzgebung der EU und der Schweiz’ will be coming out in the next days in the 01/2021 issue of Ex/Ante.

Join us for the exclusive UBS Webinar on “Sustainable investing: Freestyle today and mandatory tomorrow?” - 10 June 2021, 8:30-9:50

The increasing pressure that pension funds are experiencing today could soon be underpinned by further regulations from the legislator. What can institutional investors and asset managers in Switzerland expect? A review by Salome Kohler. 

This is part of the larger Research Report on Investor Perceptions of Swiss Sustainable Finance, conducted by Prof. Alexander and his team, on behalf of UBS.

Xenia Karametaxas and Kern Alexander published a book chapter on 'Digital Transformation and Financial Inclusion' in the Routledge Handbook of Financial Technology and Law (2021). The chapter explores some of the main regulatory concerns and market barriers created by the digital transformation of the financial services industry and the implications for a more socially inclusive financial system, particularly in developing and emerging market countries.

There will be two online book launches: at UCL on 24 June, 17:00-19:00 and at IALS on 3 September, 9:30-11:30.

Kern Alexander was invited to give a lecture on 'Financial Inclusion and Proportionality' on April 22, 2021 at the House for Sustainable Governance and Markets (HSGM) at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI).

Join us for the Geneva-Zurich Seminar Series on Sustainable Finance, with a special focus on "Sustainable Finance and Digitalisation" via Zoom.

Date: 25th March 2021

13:15 – 17:15 (UTC/GMT +1)

Hosted by: The University of Zurich & the University of Geneva

Scientific Committee: Dr. Xenia Karametaxas / Prof. Aline Darbellay / Prof. Kern Alexander

Link to the Programme

At the EBI Annual Conference 2021, Professor Alexander, along with Nicolas Veron and Professor Grünewald, will be holding a joint panel on the topic of "Flexibility and forbearance: Supporting the economy without endangering prudence". The Conference will be held on 11 February 2021; the panel will be from 16:20-16:50.

Professor Alexander gave a presentation at the virtual EUTIP Network Conference: The Future of EU Trade and Investment Policy, which was held on 14 January 2021 in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the IFW Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and is a project funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union.

We are very pleased to be a part of the Kyoto University - UZH partnership, where Dr Karametaxas presented on "Digital Transformation and Financial Inclusion" in the Virtual Workshop – Kyoto University and University of Zurich “Advanced Technology and Law”, organised by Prof Peter Picht and Prof Tatsuhiko Inatani. 

Link

Professor Kern Alexander comments on the impact of the Responsible Business Initiative on Swiss companies.

Click here for more information

Call for papers for the 2nd Geneva-Zurich Seminar on Sustainable Finance at the University of Zurich - 25 March 2021 on Sustainable Finance and Digitalisation.

Submit abstracts no later than 1 February 2021.

Click here for more information

'The Challenges of Bank ESG Investment Strategy' webinar was hosted by Professor Kern Alexander via an online zoom webinar on 29th October 2020, 1-2pm GMT, and featured as the speaker Dr Karsten Guettler, Senior ESG Investment Specialist from the UBS, in collaboration with University of Oxford Saïd Business School.

Watch it here

We are very pleased to welcome you to our first Geneva-Zurich seminar on Sustainable Finance with a special focus on Disclosure and Sustainability Risks

Date:
12 November 2020
3:30 p.m. (UTC/GMT +1) 
Access to the Seminar via Zoom
(no pre-registration required)

Hosted by:
The University of Geneva and the University of Zurich
 
Scientific Committee:
Prof. Kern Alexander / Prof. Aline Darbellay / Dr. iur. Xenia Karametaxas

Link to Programme

Prof. Alexander and Dr. Karametaxas, founders of SUSFIN, in collaboration with Ben Mansfield (Director and Founder, RCDC) and Dr. Lindsay Blair Howe (ETH) from the RCDC will be hosting a seminar on Blended Finance and Transforming Urban Areas at the University of Zurich Law Faculty.

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Date: Monday, 21 September 2020

Time: 16:00-18:00 CEST

Room: RAI-F-041

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Click here to watch the presentation.

The Center of Competence for Sustainable Finance at the University of Zurich published an article on “Sustainability is Price Stability — Covid-19 Crisis Pushes the ECB to Re-evaluate Inflation Policy” on 11 June 2020, citing Professor Kern Alexander and his ECB Report co-authored with Professor Rosa María Lastra.

On 4 June 2020, the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is holding a hearing entitled 'The European Central Bank's Mandate: Perspectives on General Economic Policies'.  Kern Alexander and Rosa Maria Lastra will give evidence at the hearing based on their ECON report 'The ECB Mandate: Perspectives on Sustainability and Solidarity' (June 2020).   

Click here for the hearing's live streaming link

Programme

On 26 November, Prof. Alexander is presenting on Brexit at the ELSA panel discussion at the University of Zurich. The lecture will take place in KOL-F-101 at 18:15. 

Professor Alexander was a panelist at the ECB on 11 November 2019 and spoke on the topic of 'The Centralisation of Banking Supervision: Building Effective Linkages Between Macroprudential Supervision, Monetary Policy and Resolution from a Comparative Perspective'.

Kern Alexander chaired the European Union QED Conference on Cross-Border Financial Regulation in Brussels on 4 June 2019.  The conference addressed some of the main cross-border regulatory challenges, including third country equivalence, implenting harmonised standards, and Brexit.

In the photo from left, Nick Collier, Managing Director, City Corporation of London, Almoro Rubin de Cervin, Head of International Affairs, DG FISMA, European Commission, Kern Alexander, Eve Finn, Managing Director, L&G Investment Management, Matthias Heer, Managing Director, Swiss Finance Council, and Sharon Yang, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, US Department of Treasury.

Prof. Alexander and Dr. Karametaxas represented the Faculty of Law at the R20 Austrian World Summit 2019 in Vienna on 28 and 29 May 2019. In the Breakout Session "Blended Finance", Prof. Alexander served as an expert on Sustainable Finance. The efforts for a sustainable future continue, and will be the subject of future research.

At the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva on 1 and 2 May 2019, Kern Alexander speaks on 'Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion'.  The conference was attended by academics, trade policy representatives and regulators from many countries, including China, Nigeria, Indonesia and Mexico, and the European Commission representing EU states.  Alexander led a discussion on how digital financial services can be regulated to support economic growth.  

Featured: Kern Alexander with Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Director, UN Division on International Trade and Commodities.

Kern Alexander lectures on the risk of Brexit for financial stability.

New textbook by Prof. Kern Alexander, Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Expert panel discussion on how to regulate bank stress testing at Harvard University Loeb House on 16 November 2018

Speakers included: Alison Scott (Bank of England), Hal Scott (Harvard Law School), Randal Quarles (Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chair), Denise Peck (Boston fed), Stefan Gelman (State Sreet), Yu Xiao (China Cenral bank), and Professor Kern Alexander (Univ of Zurich)