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SSF Newsletter June 2018: To the top
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Dear Sir or Madam,
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Swiss Sustainable Finance presented its first Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study with impressive results.
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There is only one direction for sustainable investments: to the top. The increasing participation of institutional asset owners reflects the growing SI activities of pension funds and insurance companies. Further mainstreaming of sustainable investment solutions is a natural consequence of these changing client preferences.
At the SSF Annual Conference high-level expert speakers pointed out that innovative and sustainable solutions addressing global challenges are gaining grounds – yet by far not fast enough. When climate scientist Reto Knutti showed his charts illustrating global warming, it became clear that many hot summers lie ahead of us.
We hope for a light summer breeze to cool your leisurely days in order to gain new energy for dedicated work in sustainable finance.
Kind regards,
Sabine Döbeli
CEO Swiss Sustainable Finance
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SSF activities
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Swiss Market Study shows substantial increase in sustainable assets under management
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On 30 May, SSF launched the Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study 2018, illustrating an 82% growth in sustainable investments to a new record volume of CHF 390.6 bn by the end of 2017. Growth of assets managed by institutional investors was most dynamic at 128%. Sustainable investment funds and mandates also experienced growth, 47% and 25% respectively.
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The SI funds’ share of the total Swiss fund market has thereby risen from 7% last year to 9% and sustainable assets managed by institutional asset owners now account for about 16% of the assets held by pension funds and insurance companies.
The full market study report is available in English and summaries are available in German and French.
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SSF holds Members’ Assembly and SSF Annual Conference in Bern
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On 19 June, SSF held its Members’ Assembly during which work group leaders presented their results and SSF provided an overview on its activities and achievements. With René Nicolodi, Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank, and Pascal Zbinden, Swiss Re, two new members were elected to the SSF Board.
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In the afternoon, SSF hosted its Annual Conference: "Game-changers in finance – leveraging Swiss expertise" which was attended by more than 160 finance professionals. Simon Zadek, Principal, Project Catalyst, UNDP and co-founder of the UNEP Inquiry, held the opening key note, followed by a panel on the role of Swiss asset owners.
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An expert input by Reto Knutti, professor of climate physics at ETH Zurich, paved the way for the second panel on integrating climate risk into financial decision-making. The event was rounded off with the keynote of Philippe Le Houérou, CEO at International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The event summary, photos, videos of the sessions as well as all presentations are available on our website.
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SSF publishes Annual Report 2017
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The report published in May provides a concise overview on SSF activities in the course of 2017. With 9 events organised or co-organised by SSF, we managed to attract around 800 professionals. SSF was further present at 20 third-party events.
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With a growing outreach through different communication channels SSF was named over 60 times in relevant media. The six active work groups supported SSF in the preparation of the many publications and events.
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SSF presents sustainable investment data at the GFSI
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At the 9th edition of the Geneva Forum for Sustainable Investment (GFSI) organised by Voxia communication and Conser Invest was held in Geneva on 31 May, showcasing key players in responsible finance and innovative solutions to challenges coming with the energy transition.
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SSF presents Market Study at Zurich launch event
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SSF moderates panel at RFI Summit
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The Responsible Finance & Investment Foundation (RFI) and Swiss Arab Network (SAN) organised this two-day event to build awareness of the shared values bringing together SRI (socially responsible investing), ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, and Islamic finance.
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As a partner of the event, SSF moderated a panel on the “Spectrum of impact finance & Islamic finance”. Read more about this event
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Regulatory and market news
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Swiss news
International initiatives
- The European Commission presented a package of measures succeeding its action plan on financing sustainable growth, including 3 proposals regarding the taxonomy of sustainable economic activities, ESG risk disclosure for institutional investors and benchmarks. Those proposals were backed by the European parliament with a majority of 70%.
- The European Commission has collected feedback on its draft amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and the Insurance Distribution Directive to include ESG considerations into the advice that investment firms and insurance distributors.
- The European Commission has announced the members of the Technical Working Group on Sustainable Finance. Their main tasks are to assist the Commission in the development of an EU taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities, an EU Green Bond Standard, a category of "low carbon" indices for use by asset and portfolio managers as a benchmark and metrics allowing to improve disclosure on climate-related information. With Claudia Bolli, Swiss Re, a Swiss insurance company employing a progressive sustainable investment policy is represented in the work group.
- The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) has pinned down three technical work streams to include supervisory/microprudential issues, macroeconomic risk as well as ways to scale up green finance. Furthermore, they welcomed the Bank al Maghrib, the Banco de España, the European Central Bank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank as new members and the OECD as observer.
- The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) placed 185 of its 1,967 signatories on notice after an annual audit revealed they had not acted in accordance with the minimum standard of responsible investment activity. The organisations will be contacted privately and have two years to make improvements or face delisting and public identification.
- In the advent of the G7 in Canada, 288 investors with USD 26 trillion assets under management urged the national leaders to phase out power generated by thermal coal and put a meaningful price on carbon.
- In addition to the PRI and the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), 26 banks convened to create global Banking Principles that align the sector with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. The draft principles will be presented during the UNEP FI Global Roundtable 2018 on 26 November in Paris.
- Addressing an industry-led report on social impact investing, the UK government published its response to the five themes, and considers regulatory change to help ensure ESG factors are "properly considered in pension investments.”
Market trends
- The online magazine Responsible Investor launched the research initiative “ESG: Do You or Don't You?" on pension funds and ESG, where it collaborates with UBS Asset Management. It aims to establish why some pension funds see ESG integration as a part of their fiduciary duty, while others do not. Asset owners can participate in the global survey here by end of July.
- Zürcher Kantonalbank is the first Swiss bank having issued a green bond in CHF. Its purpose is to refinance environmental loans of the bank.
- 16 banks including UBS have come together to create a publicly available methodology aligned with the TCFD recommendations to increase their understanding of how climate change and climate action could impact their business.
- As one of the first large insurers, AXA Group calculated the potential value at risk (VaR) in its asset portfolio due to climate change in accordance with the TCFD recommendations and Article 173 of French Energy law. The methodology applied is provided by Carbon Delta a Swiss start-up which recently closed its first investment round with CHF 1.7 m.
- Together with Solactive, a German financial index provider, UBS launched financial benchmark indices for World Bank bonds, multilateral development lender bonds, and development bank bonds.
- Allianz will completely phase out the underwriting of coal companies by 2040. Simultaneously, it aims to stop investing in companies that do not cut their greenhouse gas emissions, affecting EUR 664 bn of the insurer’s investments.
- One of Denmark’s largest pension funds, ATP, with USD 120 bn under management, has chosen to invest in a new Danish investment vehicle with a volume of USD 650 m aligned with the SDGs. As the Danish state and IFU (Investment Fund for Developing Countries) also contribute to the fund, risks are limited.
- The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced plans to issue a green bond, also making it the first pension fund to do so. It will sell debt to finance investments in Renewable Energy, Sustainable Water and Wastewater Management, and Green Buildings.
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SSF and sustainable finance in the media
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- 7 June 2018, La Regione, L'altro volto della finanza
- 4 June 2018, Beobachter, Kassen heizen das Klima auf
- 2 June 2018, Environmental Finance, Swiss sustainable Investment hits record levels
- 2 June 2018, Finanz und Wirtschaft, 400 Mrd. Fr achtsam investiert
- 1 June 2018, Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE), Swiss investors allocate record CHF391bn to ESG assets
- 31 May 2018, Le Temps, Genève doit être plus qu’un centre de gestion durable
- 31 May 2018, SRF4 News, Interview mit Sabine Döbeli
- 31 May 2017, L'AGEFI, L'investissement durable se généralise à tous les acteurs de la place financière
- 31 May 2018, allnews, Les placements durables prennent leur envol
- 30 May 2018, NZZ, Nachhaltige Anlagen sind auf dem Vormarsch
- 30 May 2018, Ticino Finanza, Boom di investimenti sostenibili
- 29 May 2018, NZZ, Preisstabilität durch Klimaschutz
- 5 May 2018, NZZ, Nachhaltig anlegen ist nicht genug
- 24 April 2018, Bilanz, Paradiesisch investieren: Die Kunst der «grünen» Geldanlage
- 23 April 2018, Le Temps, Genève va accueillir le siège mondial des places financières durables
Visit our website for more articles and regular updates
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SSF welcomed its 100th member
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With IAM Independent Asset Management joining our organisation, SSF has expanded its member base to 100. Furthermore, SSF welcomes three more organisations as new SSF members and now counts 103 members and partners:
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Join these events
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- 4 September 2018, Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2018, Winterthur
- 6 September 2018, ZHAW, Artificial Intelligence in Industry and Finance (3rd European COST Conference on Mathematics for Industry in Switzerland), Winterthur
- 25 September 2018, twentyfifty and SSF, Information event on the role of OECD guidelines for financial corporations, Zurich – more information soon on SSF website
- 22-26 October 2018, UNCTAD, 2018 World Investment Forum, Geneva
Further events are listed on the SSF website
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SWISS SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
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