Professor of Financial Markets
ABN AMRO Private Bank Belgium and Vlerick Business School are extending their structural partnership by four years in a bid to stimulate and promote academically validated research insights into sustainable finance and impact investing. As part of this partnership, ABN AMRO Private Bank Belgium is also funding a Vlerick PhD study on circular economy. The extended partnership also underlines the private bank's ambition to continue supporting the transition towards a more sustainable society.
Three years after entering their structural partnership on sustainable finance, ABN AMRO Private Bank Belgium and Vlerick Business School have announced that they are extending this successful partnership by at least another four years. With this extension, ABN AMRO Private Bank Belgium is aiming, on the one hand, to stimulate and promote academic research insights into sustainable finance and impact investing, with ABN AMRO’s expertise in these areas providing real added value in this regard. On the other hand, the bank is also funding a PhD project on circularity and the particular financing and investment challenges such models present. To this end, it is working closely with David Veredas, Professor of Finance and Sustainability at Vlerick Business School.
Sustainability is becoming an ever more important concept within both finance and academia. Consequently, the Vlerick Business School established its Centre for Sustainable Finance, a unique knowledge platform compiling academic research to help steer decision-making within finance in a more sustainable direction. As part of its structural partnership with Vlerick, ABN AMRO is also a privileged partner of this knowledge platform.
The extending of this partnership builds on work already undertaken over the last few years. For example, in one of the earlier studies, Professor David Veredas and PhD student Dimitrios Kolokas, both part of the Centre for Sustainable Finance, investigated the impact of ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) performance on the creditworthiness of SMEs as a measure of their resilience. The study, which looked at 350 SMEs, found that it pays for SMEs to invest in sustainability, as it increases their creditworthiness. For example, it found that an 11% improvement in their ESG performance would result in a 3.5% reduction in credit risk.
With the backing of ABN AMRO, the insights gained from Vlerick Business School's existing and future research can provide enduring added value to Belgian entrepreneurs. In this way there is collaboration on a more sustainable business landscape.
About ABN AMRO Private Banking Belgium
In Belgium, ABN AMRO Private Banking caters for high-net-worth individuals and businesses. Our guiding principle of ‘banking for better, for generations to come’ directs us in everything we do. With headquarters in Antwerp, ABN AMRO Private Banking also has offices in Bruges, Brussels, Tournai, Ghent, Hasselt and Kortrijk.