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| Type | Master's Thesis |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Sustainable Digital Finance - An Empirical Analysis of Banks and Start-ups |
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| Language |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Faculty | Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics |
| Number of Pages | 87 |
| Date | 2020 |
| Zusammenfassung | The current sustainability crisis calls for action. Nations, governments, and companies are required to take responsibility for their ecological and social impact, to ensure, that future generations do not have to bear the consequences of today’s irresponsible consumption. The transition to a “Sustainable Development” has started, but not achieved the required extent defined by the United Nations in the Agenda 2030 yet, which provides 17 Sustainable Development Goal’s to be accomplished by 2030 by all UN members. Thus, the demands of the environment and the society must be taken more into account. As a response, to this need for action, financial market participants have developed the concept of “Sustainable Finance” has emerged. This concept integrates any sustainability-related criteria − which are usually classified as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues − in any financial services. One subcategory constitutes sustainable investments, which represent investors’ opportunity to contribute to the transition to a more sustainable economy. By considering environmental and social factors when making an investment decision, investors can steer the demand and, ultimately, the direction of the economy. Therefore, they inherit an important role in view of sustainable development. Unfortunately, the current proliferation of unstandardized sustainability data poses a major challenge to an informed decision−making process. Hence, an improvement of sustainability data is needed. The financial sector is currently experiencing a transformative wave, led by financial technology companies through the deployment of digital technologies. These technologies, such as blockchain and machine learning, have a considerable potential to collect, store, process, analyze and visualize large amounts of data within a short time at low costs. Thus, the deployment of these technologies in the investments decision-making process, can make a valuable contribution to overcoming the challenges which the progress of sustainable investments is currently facing. The threefold approach, based on sustainability, digitalization and finance, is called “Sustainable Digital Finance”. This thesis aims to research a potential effect of digital technologies on investors’ capability for sustainable investments by evaluating data derived from an international survey on professional opinions of banks and non-banks. Thereby, the empirical study will contribute to the research on sustainable digital finance by providing new data. The objective is threefold. Firstly, thorough research on background information about sustainable investments, about investors’ role in the economy and about digital technologies led to valuable insights ontechnologies can be deployed to enhance investors’ capability for sustainable investments. One promising application is the use of blockchain for the certification and standardization of sustainability factors in an investment. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, for instance, can create individual investment profiles and provide sustainable investment opportunities that align with their values. The current deployment of digital technologies explicitly for the contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals shows some disrupting innovations and high potential. While internet of things-devices, such as smart meters, can contribute to waterand energy-reduction, mobile technology has shown to greatly contribute to financial inclusion. |
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