If this email is not displaying correctly, please click here.
 
2021_12_6_panel_BB
 
Looking back at SSF highlights during Building Bridges Week
 
Dear all
 

SSF, as co-founder of Building Bridges, is reflecting on a successful Building Bridges Week 2021. SSF thanks and congratulates all the contributors to the organisation of the event, especially Sustainable Finance Geneva who had the great task to operationally manage the Building Bridges Summit and the 75 events of the Building Bridges Week.

The SSF Team is delighted that concrete actions have been announced and that we could contribute to connecting the dots in the growing sustainable finance network, not only amongst financial market players, but across the Swiss Government, international organisations, NGOs and academia. As envisioned in the newly presented Roadmap, this annual conference in Geneva is and will become an ever more important cornerstone for Switzerland as a global leader in sustainable finance.

SSF (co-)hosted three events during Building Bridges Week and launched its Roadmap for Key Swiss Financial Market Players. Below we have summarised the key take-aways and share presentations for your convenience. In addition, we briefly summarise four calls for action, set-out by the SSF President Patrick Odier at the Building Bridges Summit.

I sincerely hope that all of you joining in person and following via livestream were able to participate in the energy and momentum of the event and left with the feeling that sustainable finance in Switzerland is moving fast enough in the right direction.

Kind regards,

Sabine Döbeli, CEO of SSF

 
2021_12_6_BB_patrick_odier_560
 

Four calls to action by SSF President Patrick Odier, 29 November

One of the key take-aways from the Building Bridges Week was the call to action by Patrick Odier, President of Building Bridges and SSF, urging financial market participants to commit to net-zero and to engage with halting deforestation by 2022. In addition, he encouraged the use of “Implied Temperature Rise” (ITR) as key indicator to align portfolios with net-zero and to progressively stop financing coal extraction by 2022.

25 SSF members have already pledged net-zero. Read about their motivation on our website. Join the net-zero leaders! Pledge to net-zero for a sustainable future and kindly inform us if you are not yet listed on our website.

View our LinkedIn post for this topic.

 
2021_12_6_transition_to_SF_560
 

Roadmap for Swiss Key Financial Market Players – The Transition to a Sustainable Future, 1 December

Patrick Odier, SSF President, and Sabine Döbeli, SSF CEO, were pleased to present the newest SSF publication, the Roadmap for Key Swiss Financial Market Players.

The Swiss financial sector has a key role to play in accelerating the transition towards a more sustainable and climate-neutral world. Against this backdrop, SSF launched an ambitious Roadmap with recommended actions for the Swiss financial services industry.

In this Roadmap, we highlight how the financial sector can play a key role in transforming our society and economy into one that respects planetary boundaries while offering prosperity to all people. The Roadmap outlines concrete measures targeted at various financial market players such as banks, asset managers, insurance companies and institutional investors.

This report will serve as a tool for ongoing dialogue with all players in the financial system about how best to achieve our common goal of a sustainable future.

Read more about the Roadmap here:

  • Summary of recommended actions on our Roadmap Website
  • Full Roadmap as a PDF file
  • Translations in French and German will be available in early 2022
 
2021_12_6_marie_gabrielle_ineichen_fleisch
 

Announcement of the new SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI) at SSF DFI event, 1 December

SSF was hosting the key event «Scaling Private Investments for Impact – Success Factors for Private-Public Collaboration», which featured the announcement of the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI) on 1 December by SECO State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch. The initiative aims to mobilise up to one billion Swiss francs in private capital to advance measurable impact in developing countries. SECO supports the initiative with 19.5 million Swiss francs.

The initiative has three objectives:

  • To support innovative financial solutions for new impact investing tools through grant and seed funding.
  • To scale impact investing solutions by mobilising more private capital and strengthening underlying portfolio companies. 
  • To contribute to improved framework conditions for impact investing in Switzerland and promote impact management practices. For this purpose, the initiative will cooperate closely with Swiss Sustainable Finance and the State Secretariat for International Finance.

The initiative will select the best solutions through competitive, international calls for proposals. The first call for proposals will be launched in early 2022 in collaboration with the organisation Convergence.

To illustrate current blended finance best practice, six impact investment companies were sharing successful examples of blended finance approaches. Some of their presentations can be found below.

Additional information:

 
2021_12_6_amas_publication_560
 

AMAS – SSF Event on new Transparency Recommendations, 1 December

In the joint AMAS-SSF event, Sabine Döbeli, CEO SSF, and Adrian Schatzmann, CEO AMAS, presented the new Recommendations of Transparency and Minimum Requirements for Sustainable Investment Approaches and Product.

The recommendations are directed at the asset management industry with the intention to build a bridge between asset managers, other financial service providers and end-investors. It focuses on the products designed by the fund and asset management industry and sold by financial service providers to investors.

To illustrate the application of the recommendations, the event presented three case studies from Lombard Odier, Blackrock and Swisscanto. The event was concluded by a brief overview on how the recommendations are embedded into the regulatory landscape (Switzerland and EU) by Katja Brunner, SSF Director Legal and Regulatory Projects.

 Additional information:

 
2021_12_6_zhaw_event_560
 

ZHAW – SSF Event Presenting and Discussing Novel Data Solutions,
30 November

The event featured three presentations of innovative finance data and technology solutions. Dr. Jochen Spuck, Managing Director and CTO at Econsight, spoke about making technological progress measurable by analysis and tracking of patents. Nicolas Jamet, Systematic Equity Portfolio Manager at RAM Active Investments, presented how ESG data can be improved by using artificial intelligence. Angela de Wolff, Managing Partner of Conser, presented how data analysis can be used to compare and verify ESG data.

Finally, the expert panel discussion on Novel Data Solutions for Sustainability Ratings – Flaw or Opportunity? with Alessia Torricelli, Caisse de Prévoyance de l’Etat de Genève, Meraj Sepehrnia, Head of Total Return Sustainability at Pictet, and Heiko Bailer, Head of ESG Quant Investment at RepRisk, explored the benefits and difficulties of using novel data solutions.

 Additional information:

Further information on Building Bridges Week:

Kind regards, SSF Team

 
 
SWISS SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
Grossmünsterplatz 6
 
8001 Zürich
 
info@sustainablefinance.ch
 
+41 44 515 60 50
 
Swiss Sustainable Finance   Swiss Sustainable Finance
 
www.sustainablefinance.ch | contact | sign off
 
© Swiss Sustainable Finance