Johannes Behrens-Türk
DekaBank’s Head of Sustainability Management
Sustainable Finance – what does that mean to you?
Behrens-Türk: To me, Sustainable Finance means that the days when asset managers, who have a fiduciary duty to their customers, worked within the “magic triangle” of yield, security and liquidity are over. The addition of Sustainable Finance turns the triangle into a square. Sustainable Finance follows many different approaches and uses a wide range of instruments which are evolving rapidly.
What do you see as the key to successful development of the Sustainable Finance movement?
Behrens-Türk: The aim in the future will be to increase awareness of sustainable products, while creating appropriate levels of transparency around the products’ impact on ESG issues. Many people would like to invest sustainably, but don’t realise there is already a wide range of such products on offer, which are in no way inferior to conventional investments, particularly in terms of performance.
What is Deka’s role in this?
Behrens-Türk: Sustainability is a key part of the savings banks’ DNA. For over 200 years it has allowed public-sector financial institutions not only to hold their own in the market, but often to act as market leaders in the regions. Deka is the Wertpapierhaus for the savings banks and has a mandate to enable everyone to invest in securities as well. What is more, we have been doing this for generations – now even more sustainably, if that is what customers want.
“To me, Sustainable Finance means that the days when asset managers, who have a fiduciary duty to their customers, worked within the “magic triangle” of yield, security and liquidity are over.”
What is your personal goal?
Behrens-Türk: I would like to help the Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany e.V. to build on the substantial work it has already done in the interest of its members, so that its voice can be heard even more clearly in the professional ESG environment of the European financial industry.
„In order to stop climate change – the effects of which have long since been noticeable – enormous investments are needed. This is why we are embracing the idea of private capital also being invested according to the principles of sustainability. The Cluster aims at further promoting this movement.“
Hessian Minister of Economy, Tarek Al-Wazir