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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

HSBC launched its green deposit account in the first week of February with a deposit from a building materials company.

There were many things declared at Davos this year that would lead us to believe that sustainability is now embedded in every decision a bank or investment manager makes. Here are some great examples that show 2020 is starting on a positive track.

Across the UK, Legal & General has invested over £22 billion in affordable housing, homes for the homeless, clean energy, life sciences, creative industries, and technology and infrastructure. Is this the institutional-scale impact model we have been waiting for?

Markets need more sophisticated measurement criteria to cope with the surge in demand for ESG integration.

The investment bank will no longer IPO firms without diverse directors.

The asset manager has decided to pull investment from firms that don’t make sufficient progress on ESG disclosure while it routinely votes against climate-related shareholder resolutions itself.

Kenyan property developer Acorn Holdings has issued a small but smartly structured bond programme, which will remove barriers to entry for local market bonds as local currency bonds retain appeal.

There is finally an opportunity to integrate nature within financial decision making in the year ahead. How can we ensure it’s doesn’t become a lost opportunity?

The needle may slowly be moving, but if we continue at this pace sustainable finance will still be a niche rather than integrated into all finance by the end of the century.

Sustainable financing is gaining ground in corporate Russia as firms look to improve their environmental, social and governance policies ‒ but can the country’s notorious polluters really go green?

How can sustainable finance be moved into the mainstream and made to work better? The fifth of our six recommendations is to target deforestation reduction.

Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to bring about real progress. The last of our six recommendations is for efforts to be made to incentivize green finance.

The second of our six proposals to make sustainable finance work is for firms to mandate the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Euromoney has drawn up six recommendations for the sustainable finance sector, based on the views of 20 experts in the field. The fourth of our six proposals is to develop transition finance.

Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to make efforts more effective. The third of our six recommendations is to push for the standardization of climate risk measurements.

Leading bankers in sustainable finance fear that, despite the advances and the rhetoric, the industry is not moving quickly enough. Euromoney asked 20 regional and global heads of sustainable finance for their views: what the experts think might surprise you.

What needs to happen for sustainability to be adopted by mainstream finance and move beyond the realm of pledges, panels and press releases? The first of our six recommendations is for banks to sign up to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB).

Year after year, research highlights the gap between what impact investment consumers want and what they are being offered by advisers, banks and pension funds. The UK’s new Impact Investing Institute hopes to bring everyone to the table to change this.

The Italian fashion house’s sustainability linked loan, arranged by Crédit Agricole, builds the catwalk for other retailers to follow suit.

New proposals by the SEC have shaken the investor community, threatening the ability of smaller shareholders to file resolutions and potentially preventing ESG issues from being heard.

Saudi Aramco’s intention to list aims to clear up any doubts wealth managers may have about investing on behalf of women, but it also draws attention to the fact that, despite reforms, the full inclusion of women in Saudi society is still a distant reality.

Crowdfunding platform Kiva is an example to everyone in finance who wants to make systemic impact.