For years now, more and more banks that were on our doorsteps have been disappearing. In addition, fewer and fewer loans are being granted locally. The bank customer is mutating into a dwarf on the international financial stage, says financial mathematician Christoph Becker.
For Christoph Becker, the financial market is developing in a dangerous direction: large investment companies with a few powerful people at the top are deciding who gets a loan and who doesn’t. And a loan of ten million euros has become “peanuts” in this game, explains the scientist. Even medium-sized companies have to put themselves in the hands of the new powerful – with an uncertain outcome.
“Our financial system is gradually changing – away from a bank-based system to a capital market-based system.”
Christoph Becker, financial mathematician
For the average customer, on the other hand, business is now being done according to his ideology: those who optimize themselves, who act in an environmentally conscious manner and who work for peace become uncontrolled pawns of the new lenders.
Business is done with our ideals
These lenders are happy to take up our ideals, says Christoph Becker – and then offer them for sale. Sustainable investments are just a means to an end. In other words: all of our ideals become a criterion when it comes to whether we get a loan or not. But whether the money actually ends up in sustainable projects is more than questionable. The international financial flows across the globe are too opaque.
“The most important power this financial system has is the right to say who gets a loan and who doesn’t.”
Christoph Becker, financial mathematician
Becker is convinced that the end result of this process will be a loss of our self-determination. He even sees democracy under threat. But it is not yet too late to take countermeasures. The speaker cites examples from Munich and Baden-Baden, where citizens have invested in local projects – and with great success.
More financial participation at the local level
Granting loans more locally and according to different criteria, breaking the concentration of power of a few on the financial stage and enabling more financial participation at the local level – these could be approaches to making us dwarves on the money market bigger again, he believes.
Christoph Becker is a financial mathematician and stochastician at Darmstadt Institute for Statistics and Operations ResearchThe recording for the lecture hall was made exclusively for Deutschlandfunk Nova – but is based on his lecture on April 22, 2024 at the “Citizen Lectures” at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The title: “The financial system and human self-determination”.
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