Professor of Banking and Securities Law at the University of Liechtenstein wins one of the largest research prizes for excellent financial research achievements.
Professor Dirk Zetzsche, who holds the Chair for Banking and Securities Law at the University of Liechtenstein and is director of the Centre for Business and Corporate Law at the University of Düsseldorf, has won the Hamburg Financial Centre Association’s innovation prize “Finanzkompass 2012”, which is valued at EUR 10,000. He was awarded the prize for his excellent financial research achievement, which demonstrated practical benefits for administrating investment funds and capital investment companies.
The “Finanzkompass 2012” is the innovation prize of the Hamburg Financial Centre Association and is one of the highest endowed research prizes in the field of finance. The award promotes enhanced exchange and cooperation between finance, science and research. Dirk Zetzsche was awarded the prize for his habilitation thesis Principles of the Collective Investment.
University research with practical benefits
“With his foundation work, Zetzsche has accomplished an excellent thesis on the organization and administration of investment funds and capital investment companies,” said the Hamburg State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Dr. Bernd Egert, in his laudatory speech at a senate reception at Hamburg City Hall, according to a press release. “Zetzsche’s results are not just of academic significance, but create guidelines for good regulation,” said Egert. The work of the prizewinner, which was developed over a period of many years, also deals with the latest European guideline regarding the managers of alternative investment funds (AIFMs). Here Zetzsche assumed an important role in the cooperation between the government and the University of Liechtenstein for the Europe-wide preliminary implementation draft of the guideline.
International recognition
The awarding of the research prize to Zetzsche underlines that excellent research is being carried out at the University of Liechtenstein and receives international recognition – even on relatively national questions such as legal regulation. “The thesis, which concerns eight legal systems in Europe and beyond, proved that investment funds have existed for 500 years and, on a private-law basis, have contributed to the financing of commercial enterprises,” explains Zetzsche. “All of that was based on the doctrine of the honourable businessman. The regulation of such entities is, by contrast, only a more recent and in some parts a questionable phenomenon.”
The competition for the “Finanzkompass” prize is characterized by huge involvement from an international circle of participants. The jury comprises figures from science, finance and politics and evaluates the scientific quality, the relevance for finance and the sustainability of the scientific achievement.
About the Hamburg Financial Centre Association
The Hamburg Financial Centre Association is an initiative sponsored by companies and institutes of the finance and insurance industries in metropolitan Hamburg and by the city of Hamburg. The association is managed by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. The declared goal is to bring the stakeholders of the financial centre closer together – particularly business and science in the finance sector.
About the “Finanzkompass”
The “Finanzkompass” award of the Hamburg Financial Centre Association has been presented annually since 2010 for dynamic scientific achievements for finance. The prize is valued at EUR 10,000 and is directed at scientists connected to the financial market. The Hamburg Financial Centre Association would like to use the prize to publicize excellent finance research achievements and to connect them to the economy.