Objective Established in 02007 by Z/Yen Group in conjunction with Gresham College, the Long Finance initiative began with a conundrum – “when would we know our financial system is working?” Long Finance aims to “improve society’s understanding and use of finance over the long-term”, in contrast to the short-termism that defines today’s financial and economic views. The immediate objective of the initiative is to establish a Foundation that can ignite global debate on long-term finance, by examining how commerce should enable and encourage environmental and social sustainability.

The Foundation would have four major outcomes:

• Expand frontiers - developing methodologies to solve ‘wicked’ financial problems by, for example, developing workshop tools, case studies, software, and training;
• Change systems – providing evidence-based examples through research of how financing methods work, and don’t work; ranging from financial risk and problem-analysis to structural governmental and investment implications;
• Deliver services – conferences and training using collaborative tools and theory;
• Build communities – forming new collaborative groups and spin-offs through meeting, networking, events, and the use of social networking tools; engaging with communities by posing questions of broad interest, e.g., “how might a 20-year-old responsibly enter into a financial structure for his or her retirement?” or “when could investors safely fund a 75 to 100 year forestry project?”

Activities

The iconic project for Long Finance is the Eternal Coin, a global educational experience about the meaning of money as a medium of exchange and a resilient store of value. The fundamental project for Long Finance is to develop a meta-commerce guide, a road map of the key questions that need resolution over the next 100 years. While we will restructure research priorities as we progress, Long Finance intends to conduct detailed research in eight thematic areas - long-term versus short-term, fiscal versus monetary, free versus regulated, selfish versus selfless, mutual versus public-sector versus private-sector, rational versus behavioural, sustainability versus robustness versus resilience, and theory versus practice.

So far we have given presentations around Europe and North America and published a book, The Road To Long Finance. We had a successful launch at Gresham College in July 02009 to get the debate going which was attended by 120 financial people. We’ve assembled a “kitchen cabinet” of leading bankers, investors, risk managers, journalists, sharia financiers, students, regulators and politicians. We boast an official historian and a writer-in-residence. We have begun planning and budgeting core activities, as well as starting to assemble over 70 proposed research papers within the eight themes. These proposed research projects range from studying institutions that have demonstrated great longevity, e.g. the Vatican, to what we can learn from economics in harsh climates, to the value of high frequency trading. We aim to target the problems of finance by combining the styles of Long Now, Santa Fe Institute, and London Accord.

Next Steps

The near-term objective is to get pilot funding for the first three years from late 02010 to 02013, after which the Long Finance Foundation should be generating enough value to sustain itself directly. The scale of funding could range from £/$/€9M to £/$/€15M over the three years. Discussions have begun with financial firms, professional firms, information services firms, financial centres, foundations and governments, leading to some formal proposals now being considered. More discussions are welcome!

Supporters – Gresham College, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, Willis, City of London Corporation, Alpheus, Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, Culliford Edmunds Associates, Financial Services Club, London Accord, Sedgwick Richardson, Tattarsall Hammarling & Silk, Tomorrow’s Company, UKSIF – the Sustainable Investment & Finance Association, Z/Yen Group.