The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a major step toward ending its highly controversial set of Biden-era requirements, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors,” that compel SEC registrants to report detailed information about climate-related risks that investors and securities firms would then use to guide investment strategies and operations. Led by… Read More >>
Time to Consider Net-Zero Investing?
Despite backlashes against ESG-based efforts, is it time to start thinking about net-zero investing? Officials at the CFA Institute Research and Policy Center think so and recently released a guide to help investors (and investment firms) “advance the theory and practice of net-zero investing.” The guide is a serialized volume, “Investment Innovations Toward Achieving Net… Read More >>
A Climate Data Platform Prototype Debuts at COP28
Inadvertently, I have stumbled upon another climate-related bit of news. This time it’s about the Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), described as “a unified, global, open climate data repository” whose information can be used by many sectors including financial services. A variety of securities firms would welcome free, reliable data about the climate change efforts… Read More >>
Exchanges Take On Climate Change & Bells Will Ring
World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) officials are using the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai as a way to mobilize the exchange industry to bring attention to climate change and sustainability issues and to focus on how exchanges can help channel investments and financing to green initiatives. The WFE is a global industry group… Read More >>
Group Proposes Standards for the ‘E’ in ESG
While a major backlash is underway against investment strategies based upon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released in late June a proposal for global sustainability disclosure standards that could bring some clarity to investing based on environmental concerns — the “E” of ESG. If adopted, the standards will… Read More >>
Should Banks Disclose Climate Targets of Portfolio Companies?
As global climate instability rocks regions and countries, we know what Greta Thunberg would say. Young people may not have any future at all, the famous Swedish teen eco-activist and climate sybil would exclaim, because “that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money.” Presumably, Ms. Thunberg… Read More >>
Don’t Forget the CFTC’s Role in the Climate Debate
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been getting a lot of attention and corporate pushback for its proposed rulemaking efforts “that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks.” While that battle is ongoing, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission… Read More >>
BNY & Goldman Sachs Test Drive DLT & Other News
BNY & Goldman Sachs Pioneer DLT-Based Securities Financing BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs have “completed the industry’s first agency securities lending transactions” via the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform of HQLAᵡ , a financial technology vendor focused on securities finance and repo transactions. “As part of the combined series of 35-day term transactions with a… Read More >>
CFTC Hopes Carbon Offsets Forum Will Spur Innovation
Rostin Behnam, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is hoping to jumpstart industry interest in carbon offsets via the regulator’s first-ever Voluntary Carbon Convening, slated for June 2 via the CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “As climate change is a collective action problem, I believe a joint effort between the CFTC and… Read More >>
SEC Advances Climate Risk Disclosure Rules
As many expected it would, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is pushing for new rules that will require public companies to report more details about the climate-related risks that could “have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition.” But not everyone is on board with this move, including a… Read More >>
