What is the role of the media in today’s financial markets? How do institutional investors and corporates deal with the media – what interests do they have in common, what separates them? These fundamental questions of financial communications were the starting point of the 8th Financial Community Update, it was dedicated to the “interplay between corporates, media, and financial markets”.

Girorgio Cortiana, Head of the European Corporate Research Team at UBS asserted in his key note speech that the role of financial media was clearly diminished in the past 10 to 15 years. On the one hand because corporate transparency increased due to regulatory pressures, on the other hand because analysts can inform themselves better and easier nowadays. According to Cortiana “Newswires take the wind out of the sails of the classic press”. This is also reflected by the fact that financial media only rank in fifth position of the information sources used by institutional investors, far off the annual report or personal conversations.

Financial media could preserve some relevance as regards reporting on Small and Mid Caps, Cortiana continues. This was confirmed by Peter Schuppli, deputy editor in chief of Finanz und Wirtschaft: Our newspaper concentrates on company reporting for smaller companies – “our editors follow the same company over years”. This focus is a speciality of Finanz und Wirtschaft and clearly yields added value also for professional investors.

Asked by Rolf Schläpfer – Head of Global Corporate Communications at Roche – how Peter Schuppli deals with the sometimes aggressive PR efforts of many companies, the latter asserted to be ‘immune’ against any forms of commercially motivated manipulation. In this context, Giorgio Cortiana identified parallels or virtues which both financial media and analysis should have in common: Both must be dedicated to the independence and quality of reporting relative to their target groups.

According to Schläpfer, scope and importance of effective financial communications relates to the creation of transparency and the fair valuation of a company’s share. After all, it is in the interest of any company to avoid volatility, even though this interest is not equal with the interest of the banks. For Giorgio Cortiana it is one the main jobs of IR-executives to contribute to the fair valuation of the share by pointing out to the analysts if technical valuation mistakes occur – without any intention of manipulation.

All participants agreed that the intensity of the information flow is hardly manageable. In the interest of all financial market participants dissemination and processing of information must be carried out selectively and strict discipline is necessary to in order to concentrate on the essentially relevant.