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LATEST ARTICLES
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With corporates taking a more holistic view of sustainability, banks are under pressure to address concerns over reporting and verification requirements for sustainable working capital, trade finance and liquidity management products.
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For the US to come out in support of voluntary carbon markets even while arguing for their reform is an important step in the drive to seek better standards for what are vital – albeit flawed – mechanisms. But more guidelines on how to certify and trade offsets are no substitute for the real thing.
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Corporate treasurers are playing it safe when balancing the merits of exploiting improved access to capital against the risk of unexpected economic shocks and business interruption.
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Some companies overhype their eco-credentials, while others hide theirs. Banks are navigating this complex landscape to capitalize on surging demand for sustainable investment.
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As banks focus more on climate adaptation across their businesses, are they conceding that mitigation efforts are futile?
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The standards-setter has come under fire for announcing plans to allow companies to offset Scope 3 emissions as part of net-zero targets. But this kind of compromise has always been inevitable.
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The decision by the US SEC to drop mandatory Scope 3 reporting weakens global emissions reporting standards. However, many corporate issuers are already using Scope 3 performance targets on sustainability-linked transactions for non-regulatory reasons. Are the debt and equities markets leading companies onto ESG ground upon which regulators fear to tread?
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Corporates seeking to leverage sustainable investment opportunities continue to be restricted by the lack of reliable data on which to base their assessments.
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The UBS chief investment office’s sustainable and impact investing strategist wants to avoid measurement for the sake of measurement, but responding to client demand for more data while ensuring its readability remains a challenge.
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The newest ESG trend in retail banking might be a niche offering for now, but all banks will have to take it seriously someday.
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Traditional custodians are maintaining their dominance in the face of growing fintech activity in the sector.
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Funded by green bonds, decarbonized assets are driving emissions upwards in other sectors that supply the necessary raw materials and shipment services. A capital markets transition label ought to factor this in.
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Banks need to start quantifying the legal risks of both climate action and inaction.
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Corporate and development banks want their capital to reach the smallest and most impactful of SMEs in frontier markets. Traditional credit ratings and risk assessments can get in the way.
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The London Stock Exchange Group’s head of sustainable finance strategic initiatives wants climate data to redefine the act of indexing.
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The World Bank is issuing ‘outcomes’ bond structures for niche sustainability themes and with new financing mechanisms. Like blue bonds, they are probably going to need some rule-setting.
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Elevated inflation and interest rates have focused treasury attention on the importance of diversification, particularly for those with an environmental, social or governance focus.
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A team of once-public sector bankers and officials is launching a new private equity fund that aims to identify ‘climate winners’ from the transition to a decarbonized economy. It has identified key industries but its central thesis is regulation.
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A securitization of pay-as-you-go electricity bills to fund wider access to electricity in Côte d’Ivoire could spark copycat social bonds for affordable housing, telecoms, electricity access and more.
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The global clubs charged with defining what pace of transition is both scientifically and politically acceptable are only as good-willed as their members.
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Failure to mobilize the finance needed to meet the Paris Agreement will be devastating. As those flows to overleveraged countries and companies now stall, radical steps are needed.
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The chief executive of Newton Investment Management is a forthright believer in the power of active investors to effect change at the companies they invest in, and thinks tinkering with market rules is unlikely to boost the appeal of London-listed equities.
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Regulators are starting to take a more messaging-based approach to sustainable finance, but stopping greenwashing won’t automatically lead to a transition to net zero.
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The 28th Conference of the Parties starts in Dubai tomorrow. Dubbed the finance COP, conflicting priorities could turn it into a fossil fuel investor roadshow.
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The sovereign pushed hard on its first use-of-proceeds green bond, but a sustainability-linked bond was not seen as a practical option for now.
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The use of AI for ESG reporting and assessments is spreading, and regulators can’t keep up. Lenders need to factor in a new set of governance risks that are hard to identify.
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Big banks are scrutinized on environmental, social and governance matters today as never before and they must often walk a tightrope between competing interests. Citi is no exception.
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Enel could trigger the largest step-up event in the sustainability-linked bond market if it misses its CO₂ emissions targets at the end of this year. How the market reacts will set the tone for the future of these instruments.
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Climate change is real and so are the EU’s disclosure rules.
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Data hoarding, ESG illiteracy and credit risk are roadblocks for regional banks looking to establish sustainable supply-chain financing programmes in the Gulf, just as COP28 approaches.
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Some big improvements need to be made in all areas of ESG, but it might be useful to stop trying to reconcile it with how markets function.
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The risk of a new war with Israel will derail any fledgling economic recovery for Lebanon as it attempts to convince private-sector investors of its gas and renewable energy potential.
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The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
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Sustainability-linked loans have faced growing criticism for their opacity and concerns around greenwashing. Sustainability-linked loan bonds could help to bring more transparency to the market and help legitimise these structures.
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Record sustainable finance issuance will still only get you so far.
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Ahead of COP28, the sector needs to focus on lending for energy efficiency in the emerging markets before climate tech startups in developed markets, if decarbonization is the goal.
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Patricio Sepúlveda, head of Chile’s public debt office, discusses how programmatic issuance demonstrates commitment to sustainability-linked bond goals and can make these structures more cost effective.
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MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
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Farmland acquisition for transition agriculture has proved attractive to the climate-focused investment management franchises of large asset managers. Will real-asset investors follow suit?
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Despite a year of high-profile issuance, all is not well in the sustainability-linked bond market. Teething problems could soon become an existential crisis, raising the risk that investors might decide to abandon the asset class altogether.
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Social bonds could help deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals by driving private capital into essential services. But impact looks different from one place to the next, so how can issuers report it in a way that makes sense?
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With Article 6 mechanisms formalized, project-based compliance carbon markets could take over the emissions offsetting industry, leaving participants in the voluntary carbon market stranded.
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Should we take Vivek Ramaswamy literally or seriously?
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After less than two years, S&P is scrapping its ESG credit indicators and America’s anti-woke politicians are thrilled. But this may not be the win they think it is.
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The increased corporate focus on environmental, social and governance issues is impacting treasury teams that can struggle to justify their initiatives.
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If banks want the positive PR associated with facilitating sustainable finance, they need to admit to facilitating dirty finance too.
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All private banks are different: in how they project their brand, build business, serve clients and generate fees. But they all seem to have two things in common. They love lending to rich people with big art collections and chatting about ocean preservation.
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The global disclosure recommendations don’t stand a chance against mandated regional regulation.
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The ISSB has published the final version of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, the inaugural sustainability disclosure standards. Now the real work begins – getting companies to start using them.
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The green transition is boosting demand for key metals and Africa’s commodity markets are under pressure to increase extraction. But buyer awareness of Scope 3 emissions means that processes need to be cleaned up and fast.
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Jordan Kuwait Bank has issued the country’s first green bond, a key milestone for sustainability driven capital investments in the country. But getting momentum going in the sector will be an uphill battle.
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The French investment bank is taking a bet on a double-edged blockchain technology to stay ahead of both the tokenization and sustainability trends.
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Standard Chartered’s new chief sustainability officer is not shying away from the reality of what the energy transition looks like in emerging markets.
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Turkish airline Pegasus hopes an innovative funding solution tied to sustainability targets will help it increase capacity despite challenging market conditions.
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Twinco Capital facilitates access to sustainable funding by focusing on pre-production finance.
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Risk-sharing mechanisms could help drive confidence in the voluntary carbon market, but insurance products are scarce.
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Pakistan has been trying to improve financial inclusion for the last 20 years with little success. Are new digital licences the answer?
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What will UBS’s post-merger sustainable finance strategy look like?
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Solar thermal technology could offer cheap carbon-free heat for manufacturers. But tech developers are stuck in a financing gap between venture capital and project finance that will be harder to fill after recent bank failures.
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The EU green bond standard is understandably broad. But because of this, the limits between sustainable and transition finance remain unclear.
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Restrictions on upstream oil and gas financing aren’t the silver bullet that the sector needs to achieve its climate goals.
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SLLs offer more flexibility for borrowers targeting sustainability, but the structure is coming under scrutiny around the world for potential greenwashing concerns.
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Sustainability is now fundamental to all bank operations. Restructuring to make sure that the right people are in the right sustainability roles has been a challenge for some firms. Euromoney looks at what is needed to become a credible ESG leader.
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Big transaction banks are responding to corporate customer demand for sustainability linked supplier-finance programmes by extending the geographical availability and range of the products they offer.
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Just back from Davos, the bank’s new head of sustainable finance says the industry needs to do more, and Barclays needs to do more on transition.
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Strong collective-action campaigns might hurt some banks' reputations, but they will do little to convince those institutions to change their energy policies.
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The recent update to the green taxonomy and implementation of the SFDR RTS have received a mixed reception in parts of the EU.
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Macroeconomic disruptions and regulatory scrutiny will drive market participants to adopt a practical environmental, social and governance strategy in the year ahead – one that is less about narrative and more about materiality.
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Some people think that international climate conferences are nothing more than a talking shop. The Secretary General of the UN wants to change all that – with another conference.
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Across the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt and its banks boast august credentials when it comes to climate and sustainability. But frameworks and agreements are one thing, creating substantive change across an entire financial sector is quite another.
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Asset managers are spooked by mandatory disclosure regulations coming into force in January. This is good news for the anti-greenwashing campaign, not so much for biodiversity lovers.
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COP27 placed green hydrogen production at the top of the global net-zero agenda. Banks want to fund this technology, but energy supply, cost and regulatory uncertainty are jeopardizing its future as the decarbonization solution for hard-to-abate sectors.
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On December 1, EU member states agreed on a general approach for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The final text shields banks from their full responsibility to prevent environmental harm, thanks in part to France’s post-Brexit ambitions.
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Three years ago, LTS Ventures was tasked with building a simple microfinance platform for Laos’s army of village banks and savings unions. It took off like a rocket, boosting financial inclusion, cutting fraud. Now the firm is eyeing fresh external funding and expansion across southeast Asia.
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Strategies and financing need to be radically reassessed to achieve sustainability in a rapidly changing world.
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Qatari banks are eager to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable banking amid growing public scrutiny of the environmental cost of hosting the World Cup.
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The climate circus has packed up and left, with everyone disappointed and no one surprised. Some thoughts from a COP first-timer.
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Uruguay reignites the debate on transition finance with its sovereign sustainability-linked bond.
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A groundbreaking repo facility for African sovereign Eurobonds was completed in time for a debut trade as COP27 took place. The road to closing the deal was far from simple.
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Euromoney meets Damian Payiatakis, Barclays Private Bank’s head of sustainable and impact investing, to talk about how quiet private wealth has been so far at the UN Climate Change Conference.
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Saving the planet requires shutting down coal plants while also ensuring the livelihood of the people who depend on them. The ADB has a plan.
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Reports published at COP27 suggest slow but steady progress by banks on interim sector targets for net zero. But political reality, particularly in the US, requires a delicate approach.
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Bank’s ESG head urges competitors and regulators to respond more quickly to emissions accounting challenge.
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Daniel Zelikow, chairman of JPMorgan Development Finance Institution’s governing board, on private-sector development finance, EM policy risk and funding bankable assets.
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New opportunities in oil and gas as supply is reoriented away from Russia highlight the question of how quickly cuts to financed emissions will match banks’ enthusiasm for growth in clean energy.
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Climate-smart innovations and regenerative agriculture are attracting tech-savvy equity investors to the farming sector. Access to affordable financing will determine how fast those companies can grow to scale and provide an exit.
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Announced on Tuesday at COP27, the Transition Plan Taskforce document responds to market demand for more uniformity on corporate plans.
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With anti-ESG sentiment on the rise amid a global financial tightening, is it time for investors to listen to the anti-woke agenda or double down on social responsibility?
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As the private sector demands more guidelines, COP27 should promote the development of a global framework on innovative finance.
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Vocal members of the US political right are not happy, creating new laws that ban state investors from backing companies with an ESG agenda. Several fund managers have been quick to take up their cause.
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European banks have raced far ahead of their US peers on sustainability. But the continent is now facing an energy emergency, creating pressure from some corners to reverse investment declines in oil and gas. Can Europe’s banks remain frontrunners in sustainable finance in today’s fragile geopolitical environment?
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Boutique investment bank DAI Magister suggests donor funds could catalyse private equity and debt investment in climate tech, the big theme of COP27.
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Carbon credit traders want to secure the integrity of the voluntary carbon market while encouraging speculative trading that could fix its liquidity problem.
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Demand for carbon offsetting credits on the VCM has intensified as corporates look for solutions to reach net zero. But as more and more institutions look to tap this market, can the existing infrastructure cope?
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Regulators want to prevent greenwashing; corporates need to abide by the rules. What happens when science doesn’t help?
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The launch of an SRI-linked sukuk framework this summer is a blueprint for others to follow.
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New deal adds two-year payment deferral to existing natural-disaster clause to mitigate impact of a future pandemic.
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Not long ago, correspondent banking was as basic as finance got. These days it is compliance and cost-heavy and in the crosshairs of aggressive and powerful regulators. Little wonder that so many banks are exiting small or fragile markets – actions that help their bottom line but hinder efforts at financial inclusion.
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Fossil fuel assets were set to become obsolete in the transition to net zero. But the war in Ukraine is forcing European governments to secure alternative energy sources and driving demand for coal, oil and gas back in the wrong direction. With the global energy transition seemingly pitched against national energy security agendas, banks are trying to navigate a difficult path through the turmoil.
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The IPO market has all but closed as rates rise and stock prices fall. But even as they mark existing holdings down, private equity investors will still provide big volumes of new capital to young companies seeking to scale up. The key factor? That those firms are focused on green energy and dealing with the climate crisis. Freed from the noise of public stock markets, these big funds are happy to back their own long-term views of the most promising growth businesses.
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The Netherlands wants biodiversity to be at the forefront of agricultural reform. But the government’s plan to buy out livestock farmers – which was behind the resignation of agriculture minister Henk Staghouwer last week – is a short-sighted solution.
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Anti-ESG boycotts are unlikely to cross the Atlantic.
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The Singaporean bank has launched sector-specific decarbonization commitments it says are industry-leading. For them to be achieved, the bank’s corporate client base is going to need to make changes, too.
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The government is prepared to take drastic measures to reduce the nitrogen produced by livestock. But as farmers resist being pushed out of a profitable sector, the dispute demonstrates the cost of turning climate agendas into a race to cut emissions as quickly as possible.
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With more than 220 million homes to renovate, banks must provide the necessary funding to avoid being left with non-compliant housing assets. But a lack of standardized data on energy performance certificates makes it difficult to justify lending to some homeowners.
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As scrutiny of the ESG sector intensifies, how can green funds provide the kind of data that the regulators are starting to demand?
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A US climate bill filled with green credits will create business for banks and provide relief from the backlash against ESG products.
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West Virginia state treasurer Riley Moore has opened another front in a campaign by Republican officials in the US against banks that promote ESG policies.
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A just transition should protect smaller firms from paying the price for the carbon emissions of larger ones.
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While Germany fires up its coal-burning power stations once more, it’s almost as if the country itself is protesting.
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UN CFO Taskforce member Jill Klindt talks to Euromoney about ESG disclosure challenges for SMEs and the need for all firms to produce consistent, auditable data.
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Corporate bond deals in euros are now a rarity as issuers and investors struggle to judge the new price of credit.
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While ING is paring back the retail-banking ambitions held dear by former CEO Ralph Hamers, sustainable finance is helping the wholesale bank become a growth engine for the group.
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Wealth managers are keen to engage with clients on biodiversity, but concerns over liquidity and access pose challenges to retail and private clients.
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BRI’s digital banking unit is using a vast agent ecosystem to distribute its products to Indonesia’s gig economy.
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Companies that publicly commit to net zero by 2030 need to be held accountable for those commitments. That won’t happen until their carbon footprint becomes publicly available data.
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Altrata’s report is a fascinating study of the world’s billionaires and finds the 1% now has its own 1%.
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Banks want to capitalize on the surge in green capex borrowing as corporates rush to decarbonize. Cost inflation has increased the risks involved but not the long-term benefit of carbon reduction.
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Latest iteration of the nature-related reporting framework tackles tension between demand for clear and simple methodology applicable to business models and the complexity of the science.
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Stress tests mean that banks must assess their own climate impact. The glaring data gaps will close as the science progresses and methodologies evolve.
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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision adds another piece to the global regulatory puzzle with its principles on management and supervision of climate risk, after global demands for a harmonized framework applicable to the international banking sector.
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The banking industry has become frustrated by slow regulatory progress as it waits for necessary standardization of climate risk assessments and disclosure policies to meet net-zero targets.
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Lombard Odier joins Barclays and Nomura in hoping to grow partnerships and shareholdings in a market that is heavily banked but underpinned by a vast institutional bid and a belated surge towards sustainability.
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HSBC Asset Management’s head of responsible investing has had it up to here with consultants and regulators lecturing him on climate change risk.
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Asset managers and index providers are the focus of a backlash against ESG. Banks will face their own reputational roasting as demand for fossil-fuel financing rebounds.
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Latin America’s corporates are embracing sustainable local debt financing with enthusiasm. The region’s bankers are betting that it’s going to be as good for bookrunner fees as it promises to be for the environment.
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Demographics and technology are creating new markets for financial services in population segments long ignored by traditional banks. The region is seeing a feeding frenzy in fintech startups – and the banks are responding with a new strategy: get ready to meet ‘co-opetition’.
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Since its establishment at the COP26 conference in 2021, the International Sustainability Standards Board has been busy drafting its first standards. Now they are out for consultation, but ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber is already looking beyond them and to the organization’s broader mission.
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Credit intelligence specialist OakNorth is working with a consortium of US banks to assess physical and transition climate risk in loan portfolios. The motivation for the banks is clear: self-preservation in the face of growing climate-related disruption.
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BNP Paribas’s top private banker talks to Euromoney about his love of Brittany’s rough seas, the power of ESG, and digital’s ability to transform and improve every step of the client journey.
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If the French company cuts greenhouse gas emissions, it will use savings on loan margin to finance sustainability projects: if it doesn’t, its banks will fund them.
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War in Europe has completely upended the narrative around energy transition. Corporates and their banks are now engaged in a more complex conversation around the production – and financing – of oil and gas to replace Russian supplies. This could translate into more aggressive shareholder action as ESG investors fight to keep their near-term green agenda on track.
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The event was a showcase for both sustainability and trade agreements.
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Corporates want to improve sustainability in their supply chains, but, if anything, the barriers to doing so are getting worse.
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ESG has been an intense focus for banks in recent years – not least for their communications teams. But with war in Ukraine, ESG has hit its first real test – and the talking has stopped.
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China’s approach to ESG is a jumble of grandiose and contradictory state planning alongside often marvellously successful bottom-up plans by banks and fintechs to instil in consumers a more sustainable lifestyle.
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Where do the borders of ESG lie – now and in the future? Investors from the US to China are revisiting these questions and finding thorny and often unpalatable answers, even as they dump Russian assets for ethical reasons. The results are set to shape the financial world’s relationship with sustainability for years to come.
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Treasury teams across the energy sector need to make better use of data if they are to make sense of a market that is becoming more complex.
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Energy price volatility driven by war in Ukraine could deliver a windfall to banks such as Goldman Sachs that retain scale in commodity trading. Profits from dealing can also be made without triggering ESG or sanctions-related pain.
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The first sovereign sustainability-linked bond has been announced, and it is no surprise that it is coming from Latin America. Investors and bankers will follow Chile’s transaction carefully, but is the issuer’s decision to enter war-spooked markets a sign of confidence or recklessness?
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Last year, social was top of the ESG agenda. Today, it barely merits a mention.
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Policymakers around the world are rushing to protect retail investors from buying products that are less sustainable than they believe them to be. Why?
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Early in the Covid crisis, CACIB avoided the big equity derivatives losses its local rivals suffered. Chief executive Jacques Ripoll tells Euromoney how the bank plans to take advantage of the rise of sustainable finance, which plays to its long-standing expertise in infrastructure and energy.
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A ‘remarkable’ global dollar bond from Airport Authority Hong Kong raises the question of whether any member of the aviation sector should include a green tranche within its funding structure.
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The scrutiny of sustainable finance is expected to intensify over the year as stakeholders look for market participants to deliver on environmental promises.
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Douglas Flint, former HSBC chair and current chairman of Abrdn, talks to Euromoney about climate change, his hope for the future and how he convinced CEO Stephen Bird to join the firm over fish and chips and a pint in an Edinburgh pub.
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The controversy around voluntary carbon markets has deterred banks from getting involved. They need to worry less about reputational risk and more about the planet.
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Emerging Europe has been slow to join the fight against climate change. Now the region’s biggest banking group is making its voice heard.
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One of the strongest themes of COP26 was the involvement of the private sector on an unprecedented scale. What happens next?
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A year on from being named financial adviser to Covax, a global alliance set up to deliver two billion pandemic vaccine doses to low-income countries, Citi bankers tell Euromoney about lessons learned, what has been achieved – and if Covax is a success or not.
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As COP26 winds up, Euromoney looks at how a big reduction in fossil-fuel consumption might impact the currencies of the world’s leading coal and oil exporters.
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Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer says that private finance must have a role in financing the transition to a more sustainable, equitable and healthy way of feeding the planet.
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Governments have been slow to impose compulsory cap and trade schemes, but if voluntary markets nudge them along, a new asset class could flourish.
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Andrew Cohen, executive chairman of JPMorgan Private Bank, talks to Euromoney about the war for talent, why diversity and inclusion have never mattered more, and what markets the private bank has in its sights.
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The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is one of the most closely watched developments in climate standards to have been announced at COP26. Although its launch was the culmination of an ambitious project, its work is only just beginning.
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This year’s cash management survey sees banks looking beyond purely pandemic-related challenges to focus on sustainable finance and investment in technology.
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A new programme announced at COP26 plans to speed up progress away from coal-fired power in Indonesia and the Philippines by buying out plants, shutting them down, and helping to provide a cleaner alternative.
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Intense competition for assets means that risk is being mispriced.
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The COP26 summit requires serious and inspired leadership, which its host looks ill-suited to provide.
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The hard truth is that in much of the developing world, climate change still ranks well below more immediate concerns such as unemployment, disease, poverty and political unrest for households and businesses.
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Policymakers in Moscow are finally promising to tackle climate change. Will the Russian private sector follow suit?
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The president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tells Euromoney the multilateral is intent on being ESG friendly, and crowding more private-sector capital into infrastructure projects.
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A new pledge to use foreign reserves to buy ESG assets is one of many institutional measures in Japan. But the country has still not realized its green potential at the corporate level.
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Investors fear that many Asian governments aren’t doing enough to transition to net zero. They are therefore engaging with the region’s largest utilities hoping for better results. CLP may be an example for others to follow.
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There has always been great overlap between Shariah-compliant finance and ESG principles. Malaysia is trying to harness the potential that arises from this confluence.
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A new poll by the data-room technology provider finds that worries over the potential for post-deal value destruction because of climate change have added to a risk environment already heightened by the coronavirus pandemic.
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President Xi Jinping has set out ambitious plans to decarbonize China’s economy. But most companies and banks, hampered by a lack of top-down regulation, have little idea what ESG is, let alone how to measure and report it. It is a mess – and one that China needs to clear up fast.
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Before long, investors will pay as close attention to an issuer’s green framework as to its credit rating.
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China unveiled a plan for its first national parks on Friday, the final day of the COP15 conference in Kunming. It reveals the weight of Party concerns about pollution and biodiversity fragmentation, and their impact on political stability.
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Supervisors attending this year’s meeting of the Institute of International Finance were at pains to show they would not be rushing to impose capital penalties on banks based on climate stress tests. But the issue is at the heart of a debate over what the limits to regulatory scope should be.
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The banking sector will never pick its way through the climate change jungle without harmonized regulations. To meet global risks, a global sector needs global standards. It is time for Basel V.
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The BlackRock chief executive sees a big gap opening up between the commitments of large public companies and banks and the rest of society as inflation hits.
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Sustainable agriculture holds the key to reducing emissions and transforming the global food system, says Rabo Carbon Bank’s chief executive.
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Green bonds are still a tiny percentage of total market outstandings, so maybe borrowers making net-zero pledges should tie all their liabilities to them.
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Bank of America’s Abyd Karmali is on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. He spoke to Euromoney ahead of the nature-based COP15 and climate-based COP26 conferences about what is at stake.
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The issuance of green bonds is that rare thing: a strategy on which the EU and UK agree. That is especially welcome because achieving net zero will require the participation of enormous volumes of private capital.
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Amazonia Impact Ventures says that financing sustainable agricultural production can reduce deforestation rates.
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Climate change cannot be tackled in isolation. Biodiversity is an equally important challenge, and the two must be considered in tandem. A new report backed by Singapore’s Temasek spells out the challenge and the opportunity.
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Want to know what banks will be doing at COP26? Give them a minute and they’ll get back to you…
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Credit Suisse’s chief sustainability officer is no ESG ideologue. She is at heart a hard-nosed investment banker who sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to guide clients to a more sustainable future.
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South African banks’ sustainable finance challenges reflect the nation’s difficult but vital transition away from coal.
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Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake has laid out her bank’s ambitions in green energy, as its Green Investment Group reports a record portfolio.
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A year after launch, the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets is close to setting standards for a murky market. Board member Chris Leeds discusses the journey so far, the challenges ahead and the opportunities that standardization could create for banks.
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Annual stress tests of bank balance sheets were one of the last decade’s most obvious supervisory responses to the global financial crisis. With a wave of new bottom-up assessments now getting under way, regulators hope to do something similar with climate risks. Can they do it or will this simply result in a toothless box-ticking exercise?
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Many parts of Africa present formidable obstacles to financial inclusion. Euromoney speaks to some of the pioneers that are using technology to bring far-flung populations into the financial system.
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Derivatives could turbocharge environmental, social and governance markets, with a related boost to bank revenues. However, they could also make it harder to monitor exposure.
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Gas price volatility is delivering profits to speculators. It is a reminder that carbon trading markets could face PR problems if energy dealers are viewed as big beneficiaries.
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The rising price of oil and gas in this recovery underlines the need for much greater investment in clean energy.
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Many initiatives have promised to crowd in private capital through the catalytic effect of their own seed investment. Will this one work?
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James Gifford’s life changed when he hopped aboard a flight from Sydney in 2003. The team he joined in Geneva framed the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment, created the concept of ‘ESG’ and changed the world.
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The world has been pressuring Brazil about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest within its borders for decades. New ESG-style initiatives are being adopted by Brazilian banks and businesses, but it could be the climate impact closer to home that’s creating the impetus for real change.
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Investors must understand the limits of regulatory efforts to measure climate stress at banks.
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One sustainability expert takes humanizing the narrative to new levels.
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Gustavo Montezano has been president of BNDES since July 2019. He is on a mission to get Brazil’s state development bank to adapt to the new financial reality of ESG. How the resultant tensions play out will be crucial to the development of Brazil and the world.
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The vast majority of Bangladesh’s consumer economy happens through small shops shackled by logistics, scale and access to capital. ShopUp aims to bring some of the fintech and financial inclusion principles we have seen elsewhere to this highly populated and fast-growing country.
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Sustainable finance and renewable energy are becoming more important for the French firm, as it reduces its emphasis on equity derivatives.
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Retirement marks the end of a successful and well-timed career, and removes the most senior woman from Asian investment banking.
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Can multilateral development banks fight climate change while still promoting economic development in emerging markets? The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the first to set out concrete plans on how to do this.
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Neobanks are targeting less wealthy people in both developed and developing markets – a constituency that has traditionally been neglected by incumbent banks because of legacy costs. But it’s an increasingly political issue and where does this leave people who still need access to cash and branches?
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China faces tough choices in the months ahead. Make the right decisions and it can become the global leader in ESG, a country determined to shed its industrial past and embrace a cleaner, greener future.
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Australia is not the first country that comes to mind with regards to climate action. But away from the political rhetoric, the exceptionally powerful superannuation funds and corporates are pushing change. The key is an acceptance that in Australia it’s all about transition.
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Brazil’s central bank attempts to redress the country’s woeful environmental reputation with climate-related stress tests.
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One of the stars of Estonia’s post-Soviet generation, André Küüsvek, talks to Euromoney about escaping lockdown in Kazakhstan, expanding the NIB’s environmental remit and the risks posed by rising inequality.
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A new analysis of European banks by ShareAction finds that while some firms distinguish themselves in some climate and biodiversity practices, the overall picture is of a sector that still has much work to do.
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Bright people, information overload and impenetrable jargon: our ESG editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker reflects on her first 12 months covering a fast-growing sector.
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ESG issues are part of the package with emerging market sovereign bonds.
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The New Development Bank will add at least four new member countries next month, with the likes of Bangladesh and Egypt leading the charge to join. A concerted focus on ESG and more private-sector lending are also on the cards for the Shanghai-based multilateral.
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Banks are taking a more proactive approach to sustainable trade finance, recognizing that their responsibilities extend beyond simply providing financially competitive products.
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The IFC’s Latin America head sees local capital markets growth as key to financing sustainability.
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Nearly all banks talk about corporate responsibility, few make it integral to the way they work. What sets Bank of America apart is that it has been doing just that for years and this year it receives the award for North America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.
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Many are still a long way from understanding the risk climate change poses to their businesses.
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China’s lenders are keen to go green, as Ping An Bank chairman Xie Yonglin tells Euromoney. Regulators want that, too – but embracing ESG in a country still in thrall to dirty industry is easier said than done.
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It is showtime. One year after Toshiba’s AGM triggered 12 months of shareholder revolt and the departure of the CEO and several other key figures, it is time for the next meeting. They will have plenty to discuss.
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The bond market’s hottest structure has come under fire from a leading ESG investor, with borrowers accused of gaming the system to take advantage of demand for sustainable products.
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Private equity has been slow to join the ESG revolution. More firms are waking up to the opportunities on offer as well as the downside risks.
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Two years ago, Barclays began to build a dedicated sustainable investment banking coverage group. Aimed at emerging growth companies, as well as the bank’s mature large cap clients, it’s a big element of a wider collaboration effort at Barclays.
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The two banks plus Singapore’s stock exchange and sovereign wealth vehicle believe they have the collective strength and skills to build Climate Impact X, based initially on southeast Asian forestry and mangrove projects.
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Years of tough but successful IMF-led reforms have put Egypt in a great place to rebound strongly from Covid. Its future will be shaped by big infrastructure projects and by a plan to transform the nation into a powerhouse of green finance.
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Merger shows Indonesia e-commerce coming of age, but can the financial services assets be combined?
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The ongoing market and economic impact of Covid-19 is likely to trigger a more active approach from corporates to their cash strategies.
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There are hopes that the innovation will assist with financial inclusion. But is gold ownership the way to achieve this?
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Banks are refining their sustainable cash-management offerings, seeking to align their corporate sustainability strategies to financing and treasury actions.
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In just a few days, Deliveroo’s IPO went from having a book that was oversubscribed at the top of the price range to pricing at the bottom and then collapsing in the aftermarket. What went wrong and does it mean anything for other London listing candidates?
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Biodiversity loss now competes with climate change as the principal challenge for sustainable finance. What does it actually mean for banks and asset managers and what can the private sector do to restore the balance of nature?
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Activist investor victory may open the floodgates for shareholder challenges against Japanese corporate management.
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Black-owned broker-dealers have largely been excluded from the mainstream of corporate debt and equity capital raising. The bulge-bracket banks are now working to correct this, inviting firms owned and staffed by racial minorities, women and veterans to lead their own deals and showcase their capabilities to corporate clients.
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A $100 million World Bank bond arranged in early March by Citi crowded in funding from wealthy individuals as well as institutions for the first time. When it comes to impact investing, this is just the start.
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ESG investors want to see evidence that their money is making a difference. It could be putting a dampener on banks’ appetite for issuing social bonds.
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The burgeoning industry demands instant experts, but everyone has to start somewhere.
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It has the backing of Prince Charles, as well as several big names in banking – but will the Financial Services Taskforce contribute anything new to the fight against climate change?
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Polish companies have been behind the curve when it comes to sustainability. A reinvigorated Warsaw Stock Exchange plans to bring them up to speed.
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East Capital co-founder Karine Hirn began her investing career in Russia in the 1990s before moving to China to head up the firm’s Asian expansion. She discusses the challenges of the Chinese market, why eastern Europe has the edge on corporate boards and why governance is key to ESG.
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Brazil should be well placed to benefit from renewed interest in forestry projects, but the country’s restrictive land laws could lead foreign investment to flow elsewhere.
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As policymakers worry about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, companies and asset managers are still working out how to make sense of them.
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Fears over greenwashing claims have often dissuaded issuers from the Middle East from entering the sustainable bond markets. That could be set to change.
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If the market for sustainable finance is ever to achieve true scale, it needs to crack the tough nut of sustainable trade finance solutions.
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Previously known as reverse factoring, sustainable supply-chain finance is one of the products currently generating the most interest among both banks and their corporate clients.
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The US president’s prompt action in rejoining the Paris Agreement has given encouragement to environmentalists at home and abroad. What should be next on his green hit list?
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LatAm has seen a surge in ESG bond issuance this year, as banks and corporates play catch up in the sector.
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Critics question whether the bloc’s taxonomy will work for emerging Europe.
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A ban by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on banks denying services to whole sectors could hit their corporate responsibility efforts
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Asset managers and owners are scrutinizing firms’ climate commitments like never before, as HSBC is discovering.
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UK bank urged to set timeline for fossil-fuel financing phase-out.
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From Covid relief funds to the COP26 climate summit, sustainability is expected to dominate the global agenda this year as never before.
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Its ambitions require an estimated $1 trillion annual spend and only 10% to 15% of this will be met by the government.
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The battle for control of Petropavlovsk has been raging since the board and management were unexpectedly voted out at the AGM in June. But only now has it become clear the role a conversion of bonds may have played. At issue are allegations of unequal bondholder treatment.
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Critics of the US firm’s appointment to consult on integrating ESG into EU banking regulation have welcomed a damning report by the bloc’s ombudsman. But does it miss the point?
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In January, the US will usher in a new president and new era in climate policy and green finance.
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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.
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The Swiss asset and wealth manager’s Natural Capital fund, launched on Monday, is a first of its kind in the public equity markets.
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A global green recovery is still a distant ambition, but leadership across sectors is slowly coming together.
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As the world cheered news of a potential Covid-19 vaccine in early November, important steps were being taken on equitable manufacture and distribution as well.
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One of the biggest capital markets stories this year has been the rise of social bonds.
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One of the solutions to the looming sovereign debt crisis could be to link financing to natural capital or climate adaptation.
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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.
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Arguments over the definition of impact miss the point in a rapidly growing market.
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The social bond market has boomed as public-sector borrowers raise funding to mitigate the pandemic. Now they need to become long-term options for both banks and corporates.
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The Covid pandemic and racial injustice protests have thrust social investing into the spotlight this year. However, using this to achieve long-term change on the ground will be a tough job.
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One intriguing sub-plot of a wild year in bank capital has been the advent of green AT1 and tier-2 deals.
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Environmental, social and governance investors can lend out their securities, but greater communication and transparency is needed for it to work.
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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
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The finance sector has woken up to its impact and dependence on nature. So, it needs to prioritize the development of investable projects.
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Environmental, social and governance factors are financially material and the time for debate is over – unless you’re Trump.
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While banks have made progress on integrating environmental considerations into areas such as project finance and corporate lending, investment bankers have so far faced few – if any – sustainability-related restrictions on their activities.
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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.
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The bank’s new Development Finance Institution could move the needle in helping developing economies meet the UN’s sustainable development goals. Euromoney talks to managing director Faheen Allibhoy and chair of the governing board Daniel Zelikow.
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Across every sector and region HSBC stands out for its commitment to developing partnerships and products that will bring finance at scale to create a more sustainable and resilient planet.
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With its unique model of direct lending to microfinance institutions and bringing large investors to the table, BNP Paribas has put financial inclusion at the heart of its agenda.
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Using its balance sheet to help the transition to net zero emissions, racial equality and economic mobility, while supporting employees through Covid-19 and assisting communities in all markets it operates in, Bank of America has put corporate responsibility at its core.
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The breadth and ambition of Santander’s diversity and inclusion programmes set it apart from its peers globally.
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The trend towards social debt issuance at the expense of green bonds poses a conundrum for firms looking to appoint credible leaders for a push into sustainable financing.
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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is moving beyond a compliance-focused cancel culture, giving US banks an undeserved chance to win market share from European firms.
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Governments need to step up to take a more proactive and innovative role in creating new markets.
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Environmental, social and governance ratings are far from perfect – but criticism of the industry too often misses the mark.
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By clinging to the rhetoric of protecting fossil fuel jobs, Trump is helping no one.
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The $40 trillion environmental, social and governance investment industry is built on a bedrock of data from an ever-widening range of sources. Is that data fit for purpose?
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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.
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When a big US bank joins its peers around the world under an umbrella of responsible banking, it lifts the entire responsibility agenda – and this is exactly what Citi has done as an early signatory to the Principles of Responsible Banking (PRB) of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
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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.
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It was a year of milestones for Morgan Stanley in sustainability, a journey that began in 2013 with the establishment of the Sustainable Investing Institute under Audrey Choi, the bank’s chief sustainability officer.
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Social distancing and government payments are turbo-charging digital bank’s growth.
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The country is losing the war on the coronavirus, as well as wasting the ensuing digital payments opportunity eagerly grasped by others in Latin America.
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The saga of ESG data looks promising, but the questions about its usefulness for investors drag on.
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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?
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The sustainable finance movement needs to manage the risk to its reputation, as Jeff Gibbs highlights in his documentary.
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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?
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The United Nations Special Envoy for financing the 2030 Agenda tells Euromoney how the Sustainable Development Goals can help us ‘build back better’.
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EIB looks to help the most vulnerable and to encourage banks to take on more risk as it unveils a €5.2 billion package for non-EU countries.
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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
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Green bond issuance slows in market turmoil, while social bonds offer means to finance Covid-19 responses.
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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.
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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.
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Financial industry group asks regulators and standards boards for greater global consistency around taxonomies, climate-related risk disclosures, policymaking and regulation.
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The government’s response to the lack of financial inclusion is to build thousands of new banks throughout the country, but it faces a big challenge in weaning potential customers away from the black economy.
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It has taken the climate crisis to bring our collective focus onto the role of financing and the role of banks.
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HSBC launched its green deposit account in the first week of February with a deposit from a building materials company.