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with a phone call. I remember my first AFM conference
in Budapest. Not too long before the conference I asked
Kriszti who was sponsoring the lunches and dinners. Her
reply: the participants. I could not believe that and made
a few phone calls and they were paid for. Today? Forget it.
Everything needs to be budgeted and those with a hand
on the budget have no idea about AFM or Bürgenstock.
And if they have a bad year and decide to save some
money they slash the sponsoring.
And another problem hit the markets: the quick buck
artists quickly realized that derivatives are not just tools
for risk-management but also for leveraging. And they
went crazy – driving the financial markets very near
a huge cliff. Until the turn of the century our markets
had it pretty good with regulation, a lot of it was self-
regulation. In one of my first speeches as chairman of
SFOA on Bürgenstock I said “we have to do a better
job with self-regulation. If we fail, the politician will
take over and then we will have a big problem.”. Well,
it did not take very long for them to get in the act. First
we got SOX and that failed brilliantly (if it had worked
the fincrisis 2007 would not have occurred). Did they
learn? Of course not – Dodd Frank created an even
bigger mess. The Europeans thought they need to get
in the act as well and launched Mifid and are now in the
process of making things even worse…
Let’s hope the emerging markets find a way to handle
their affairs better. One lesson from the recent past
– keep the nose to the grindstone do not chase the
quick (speculator’s) buck! The core idea of emerging
markets still should be to be the place for price-finding
and liquidity creation, to be a cog in the value chain.
Let’s keep it that way!
Education is the key to success and conferences like the
AFM conference play an important role, be it directly
or indirectly. For that they also need the support of
the established exchanges both in know-how and
sponsorships, without which the conference will face an
uncertain future. A strong AFM has been built up – keep
it growing!
My great admiration and thank you goes to all the founding
idealists and all those that helped AFM get established
and successful, especially, of course, Kriszti, the heart
and soul of AFM! Enjoy a great anniversary convention
and looking forward to be part of it also in the future!
Paul Meier
