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After three decades – and a few financial crises – on the trading floors of four of the largest investment banks, most traders would probably be contemplating leaving to either set up their own hedge fund or take their well-deserved retirement from the industry. Fewer still might be considering, and actually going through with, making a move into public sector employment.

The EIB publishes today its 2020 Climate Awareness Bond Framework. Together with the upcoming 2020 Sustainability Awareness Bond Framework, this document explains how the bank is aligning its green and sustainability bonds with the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the proposed EU Green Bond Standard Regulation. Aldo Romani and Tomomitsu Maruta of EIB’s sustainability funding team put into context this significant development at the ‘EU Climate Bank’.

Mainland China’s sustainable bond market has gone from strength to strength recently, with issuers and investors finding new opportunities and embracing international standards.

While strong issuance so far this year has given rise to expectations that the European securitization market’s recovery could accelerate in the second half, 2021 is not just a rebound story. Investor demand and regulatory change are also driving new developments and innovations, say BNY Mellon’s Paul Crossley, senior business development, principal, EMEA, and Michela Sperandio, head of business development, Italy.

While the full financial impact of the pandemic has yet to emerge, growing signs of corporate distress are expected to start emerging in the coming months. To get ahead of it, early engagement with lenders and appointing strong advisors can help companies avoid insolvency or costly restructuring, say Ocorian’s Alan Booth, head of capital markets and Nick Bland, head of UK client services.

EQ Credit Services has rapidly grown to become one of the leading standby servicers and technology providers of loan management systems in the UK. In an interview with GlobalCapital, Will Ellis, sales director, describes the growth story so far and future ambitions.

The Vienna Stock Exchange celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, making it one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges. Its longevity and resilience, through wars, the fall of empires and financial crises, is partly due to a sound reading of, and response to, future market trends. In an interview with GlobalCapital, Matthias Szabo, director of debt listings, highlights three current trends that are shaping the future of the exchange, and the industry.

KfW has one of the largest and most successful green bond issuance programmes in the market and now, with a new mandate from the Federal Government to help deliver ambitious climate goals, it is pushing ahead with a strategy that enshrines sustainable transformation as the Group’s primary strategic goal.

Active management, structural protections and refinancing have aided the resilience of collateralised loan obligations amid a challenging period for structured finance. The increasing embrace of environmental, social and governance factors in CLOs could aid the market’s recovery and future growth, says Ocorian’s Nick Bland, head of UK client services, and Kareem Robinson, client director.

The US consumer ABS market is in the middle of a balancing act, as investors cautiously look at indicators of further economic pain while also eyeing riskier assets in the hunt for yield, according to CSC and GlobalCapital’s annual securitization pulse survey.

As yields have collapsed elsewhere under pressure from central bank interventions, fixed income investors have increasingly sought higher returns in the esoteric ABS sector, according to CSC and GlobalCapital’s annual securitization pulse survey.

While it’s difficult to be positive on the outlook, securitization market participants expect only a modest increase in nonperforming loans in Europe this year, according to CSC and GlobalCapital’s annual securitization pulse survey.

Market participants expect European consumer ABS spreads to remain flat or tighten in 2021, despite the potential for these deals to reflect economic stresses and rising unemployment, according to CSC and GlobalCapital’s annual securitization pulse survey.

2020 was an extraordinary year. It was period many would rather forget in their personal lives, but a year of outsize returns in pockets of securitized products. It was also a year that turned the outlook for securitization on its head.

GlobalCapital and HSBC hosted a virtual roundtable in mid-January to discuss the blowout start to high yield bond issuance in 2021. Leading market experts highlighted how Asia’s debt markets have shifted — and how borrowers are positioning themselves for the rest of the year.

Throughout these uncertain times, UniCredit is providing a point of reference for the CEE, thanks to our strong commitment to supporting clients and the region.

UniCredit’s Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) division was aware of the threat of Covid-19 early on, and took decisive measures to mitigate its impact.

Jason Channell, Head of Sustainable Finance, Citi Global Insights examines the broad understanding of environmental, social and governance factors, how these have become a mainstream economic concern, and how sustainability policy is impacting supply chain finance.

RBI follows a “profit-with-purpose” business model with explicit alignment of its activities with social, environmental and economic responsibility. We help develop sustainable economies and support our customers’ transition to zero carbon activities.

At this year’s Central & Eastern European Forum, Société Générale hosted the workshop titled ‘CEE central banks’ balance sheet expansion: a necessity or a risk?’. The speakers were Radoslaw Cholewinski (deputy head of fixed income at Pekao TFI), Martin Dolejs (portfolio manager, pension fund and insurance portfolios at Allianz), and Zoltan Aroksallasi (FX and rate strategist at Erste Bank), and I thank them for their insight, their knowledge, and their time. By Marek Drimal, EMEA Strategist, moderator of the workshop.

The damage caused by hurricanes Eta and Iota, which slammed into the Central American states at the end of November, caused widespread damage and further misery to millions in countries that were already suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Raiffeisen Bank International’s clients are increasingly looking to achieve more sustainable, fairer and more transparent ways of doing business. In this context, RBI maintains a comprehensive dialogue with an ever-increasing pool of clients on sustainable finance, e.g. bonds, loans and Schuldscheine. We focus our attention not only on “green”, but also cover sustainability-linked instruments, a rapidly growing area in the sustainable finance universe.

The current global health crisis has surfaced an important discussion around the connection between sustainability and the broader issues weighing on our society. So, if we take one lesson away from these intersecting crises, it is that our physical and economic health, our sustainability and resiliency, and social justice are inextricably linked.

By Jana Hecker, Global Head of Equity Capital Markets, UniCredit

During last January’s conference in Vienna, we felt that sentiment around CEE was mostly optimistic, but — to be frank — slightly unenthusiastic. It seemed as though everybody was expecting another solid, but ordinary year ahead. The news about the novel coronavirus in China was very distant.

Since 2018, Raiffeisen Bank International has issued several green bonds. Targeting private and institutional investors, the bonds support the growth of green financing at RBI’s headquarters and across its subsidiary banks in CEE, thereby facilitating a reduction of more than 60,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. This corresponds to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 13,000 cars or almost 7,000 households.

European green bond issuance has significantly outpaced that in other regions over the last four years and in 2020 the European Union is set to be responsible for more than 50% of global green bond issues (sources: S&P Ratings, Climate Bond Initiative).