New Year’s Reception in Eschborn: Embracing a “Get It Done Mindset”

Release date: 11 Feb 2025

More courage, more Europe, more capital market: This threefold plea ran like a common thread through the speeches of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Martin Jetter, CEO Stephan Leithner and the Prime Minister of Hessen, Boris Rhein, at this year's annual opening of the German Stock Exchange in Eschborn. Leithner positioned the event, which was attended by around 650 high-ranking guests from the capital market and its environment, as “the German financial summit”. This summit, he said, must create the momentum for a new “get it done mindset”.

The courage to reform

In his opening speech, Martin Jetter diagnosed a general lack of courage in the face of the challenges of our time. He recalled the spirit of optimism that still prevailed at the turning point of 1989. The progress that has since been made in terms of global prosperity still gave cause for optimism today. In our democracies, it was important to hold on to a culture of mutual respect and fact-based debate – and to move forward courageously with urgently needed reforms.

Capital markets as a solution

Stephan Leithner's main thesis was: The capital market is a central part of the solution. This applied both to the financing of future projects for competitiveness and to the financing of pensions. He recalled the investments made by Deutsche Börse in the future viability of the European capital market. In principle, the access of private and institutional investors to the capital market should now be improved. Generally, more investment was required across Europe in a broad range of innovative technologies: from AI to cloud, DLT,
and crypto. “More private-sector visionaries à la Steve Jobs and Hasso Plattner” were needed – in other words: a “get it done mindset”.

Frankfurt as the heart of the German financial world

Minister President Boris Rhein seamlessly followed on from this in his keynote address. His plea was: “We need to talk more about performance in this country again.” He described the financial centre in Frankfurt as a “central competitive factor” and a “guarantor of prosperity” and added: “It makes Europe sovereign and Frankfurt strong.” At the same time, he emphasised the state government's support for the financial sector by providing a clear regulatory framework and reducing bureaucracy.