Helen Avery

Contributing editor Euromoney

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Helen Avery is a contributing editor. She covers social and environmental finance, and topics of diversity and ethics within the financial industry. Helen is also a director at the Green Finance Institute.

RECENT ARTICLES

Sustainability

China gets serious about green finance

Its ambitions require an estimated $1 trillion annual spend and only 10% to 15% of this will be met by the government.

Helen Avery, December 21, 2020
Opinion

Biden win signals shift in green finance landscape

In January, the US will usher in a new president and new era in climate policy and green finance.

Helen Avery, November 30, 2020
Sustainability

Sustainability-linked products forge path to fully sustainable finance

Volumes of sustainability-linked bonds are predicted to increase during the next year. The model, combined with developing data and disclosures, could help embed sustainability across finance.

Helen Avery, November 24, 2020
Opinion

Green stimulus demands political leadership

A global green recovery is still a distant ambition, but leadership across sectors is slowly coming together.

Helen Avery, November 13, 2020
Opinion

Will the UK move on green gilts?

The sheer weight of investor demand for sovereign issuance means that the UK government could be warming up to the idea of a green gilt.

Helen Avery, October 30, 2020
Sustainability

ESG investors need to improve securities lending communication

Environmental, social and governance investors can lend out their securities, but greater communication and transparency is needed for it to work.

Helen Avery, October 20, 2020
Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Virtual Event 2020

Panel IV: Understanding sustainability

Demand for investments with a positive social or environmental impact is increasing. For portfolio managers this means navigating a complex world of terminologies, data and reporting

Helen Avery, October 15, 2020
Opinion

Nature is the new climate, and it needs financing

The finance sector has woken up to its impact and dependence on nature. So, it needs to prioritize the development of investable projects.

Helen Avery, October 09, 2020
Sustainability

Voluntary carbon offsets – the next big investment

Mark Carney has put his weight behind a new taskforce to speed up the development of voluntary carbon markets. The aim is to build infrastructure that will create liquid and investable carbon offset markets.

Helen Avery, September 15, 2020
Opinion

Responsible finance: Trump’s Kodak moment

By clinging to the rhetoric of protecting fossil fuel jobs, Trump is helping no one.

Helen Avery, September 01, 2020
Sustainability

Finance CEOs urge governments to step up ESG efforts

The Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) has cited 64 specific recommendations in a report calling for greater public-sector engagement in supporting the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement.

Helen Avery, August 05, 2020
Sustainability

Sustainable finance: The financial sector must build D&I momentum

Income, racial and gender inequality have been at the top of the news agenda for months. The financial sector now needs to go beyond programmes, initiatives and box-ticking and embed diversity and inclusion into all it does.

Helen Avery, July 15, 2020
Opinion

Sustainable investing: Beyond the tipping point

The saga of ESG data looks promising, but the questions about its usefulness for investors drag on.

Helen Avery, June 02, 2020
Sustainability

UK finance still struggles with gender pay gap

Virtual meetings have afforded women greater visibility during the Covid-19 crisis, but little to nothing has happened. Will things finally start to change in the financial sector?

Helen Avery, June 01, 2020
WEALTH

Wealth managers keep calm and carry on

For wealthy clients, the Covid-19 crisis has afforded an opportunity to test the asset-allocation advice and lending capabilities of their wealth managers

Helen Avery, May 26, 2020
CAPITAL MARKETS

Spacs prove resilient in shaky markets

Appetite for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies is growing as investors find comfort in their new structure. Market participants expect more to come this year along thematic lines, with the first ESG Spac launched in May.

Helen Avery, May 21, 2020
BANKING

Response and responsibility: Banks and the fight against Covid-19

Banks have been trying to rebuild trust since the global financial crisis. They have touted corporate responsibility and stakeholder capitalism as core tenets of their businesses. Covid-19 and the subsequent economic crisis will be a big test of their commitment.

Helen Avery, May 07, 2020
Opinion

Planet of the Humans: Beware the environmental capitalists

The sustainable finance movement needs to manage the risk to its reputation, as Jeff Gibbs highlights in his documentary.

Helen Avery, May 07, 2020
Sustainability

What now for environmental finance?

The momentum for environmental finance had been growing, but Covid-19 has forced a pause. Can environmental finance help economies to ‘build back better’? And how can that movement boost environmental finance?

Helen Avery, April 24, 2020
Sustainability

UN’s Mohieldin says SDGs are a framework for response and recovery

The United Nations Special Envoy for financing the 2030 Agenda tells Euromoney how the Sustainable Development Goals can help us ‘build back better’.

Helen Avery, April 20, 2020
BANKING

Bank research embraces alternative data

Sell-side research is integrating alternative data to navigate the current coronavirus crisis. It’s the future for bank research, but it’s not an easy transition.

Helen Avery, April 14, 2020
Sustainability

Employee mental health on bank agenda

From financial support and flexible working to Zoom ‘happy hours’, choirs, online yoga and mindfulness classes, banks around the world are seeking to address employee mental health during the Covid-19 crisis

Helen Avery, April 08, 2020
Sustainability

Coronavirus crisis offers green and social bonds chance to prove their worth

Green bond issuance slows in market turmoil, while social bonds offer means to finance Covid-19 responses.

Helen Avery, April 07, 2020
Opinion

Shifting corporate responsibility to consumer resilience

The coronavirus Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the need to build better consumer financial resilience – bank efforts to support personal savings and debt reduction will have a greater impact than writing cheques.

Helen Avery, April 06, 2020
WEALTH

Obituary: Jürg Zeltner – the first modern private banker

The former UBS private banking chief leaves an impressive legacy across the wealth management industry.

Helen Avery, March 25, 2020
BANKING

Community banks a model for resilient banking

The world’s community banks, credit unions and CDFIs have been taking concrete action to help their clients, communities and employees respond to the coronavirus Covid-19 crisis.

Helen Avery, March 24, 2020
Fintech

Central bankers among those hungry for alternative data to navigate coronavirus crisis

Investors, governments and central bankers are using new sources of data to understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Helen Avery, March 18, 2020
Sustainability

Pandemics – another reason to stop financing deforestation and climate change

Zoonotic diseases will rise due to deforestation, says Zurich Insurance Group’s head of sustainability risk, while one report shows key financial institutions have yet to adopt deforestation policies.

Helen Avery, March 11, 2020
Sustainability

IIF says policy fragmentation slowing sustainable finance

Financial industry group asks regulators and standards boards for greater global consistency around taxonomies, climate-related risk disclosures, policymaking and regulation.

Helen Avery, March 06, 2020
Opinion

Responsible finance: The research note that could be a tipping point

It has taken the climate crisis to bring our collective focus onto the role of financing and the role of banks.

Helen Avery, February 24, 2020