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A group of companies has committed to the Science Based Targets Initiative drive to reduce their carbon emissions at the kind of fast pace required to make a real difference to global warming. Initiatives like these are valuable, and begging to be supported by capital markets investors. -
With central bankers, it is all in the nuance. “Do what we must” sounds an awful lot like “whatever it takes”, but as of Thursday it means a very different thing.
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Policy makers and regulators don’t like risks, which is why they keep attempting the impossible — regulating them out of existence. The most recent example comes in the form of the European Commission’s Prospectus Directive III.
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Transparency has been among the top priorities of regulators and policy makers in the post-crisis era, but they don’t seem to understand what kind of information is important or when it becomes so.
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In the build-up to the Paris-based United Nations Climate Talks this weekend, banks are falling over themselves to demonstrate green credentials through their lending, their asset books and their borrowing. But just as important is what they choose not to finance, and why.
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Green bonds are finally beginning to take hold among commercial banks, which could end up being the product’s main issuers.
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The Total Loss Absorbing Capacity rule, years in the making, is finished. But no one has any idea how it will actually work.
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Investment banks all want the same things — more capital, smaller loan books, and more concentration on more profitable business. When banks announce a turnaround, they should be judged on specifics, not aspirations, and on this, Standard Chartered’s strategy update is pretty watery fare.
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The fragility of corporate hybrid capital was laid bare again this week, when Standard & Poor’s stripped the equity credit from 29 bonds, issued by 14 issuers.
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Banks may have become safer places to invest, but investors in senior unsecured bank debt have been shunted down the capital structure. However, senior spreads do not reflect this new credit risk, especially compared with covered bond spreads.
