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On June 18^th, Natixis hosted a virtual renewables investor conference, co-moderated by Eric Arnould, Natixis’ Head of Equity Capital Markets, and GlobalCapital’s Sam Kerr. In light of the COVID-19-induced recession, there have been widespread hopes for a green recovery, and no sector is more important to that aspiration than renewable energy. In turn, the virtual panel discussion was centred on the desirability of renewable power, banks backing the industry, corporates going green and technological progress, among other topics.

To read the full article, please click here (paywall).

Writing for The Asian Banker, Olivier Paul, Director, Finance for Development at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), discusses the implications of the Coronavirus pandemic for the trade finance industry and the measures needed to backstop a trade recovery.

Undoubtedly, global trade volumes are expected to fall in 2020 – and with them – the revenues of the trade finance industry. Yet several priority interventions could immediately bolster financing capacity, including large scale purchases of low-risk trade assets, transitioning to paperless trading or providing capital relief for trade transactions under global financial stability rules, known as Basel III.

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Writing for Financier Worldwide, Olivier Paul, Director, Finance for Development at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), discusses policy responses and paperless trade in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the wheels of global trade turn more slowly as a result of the pandemic, it is crucial that they do not stop completely, and a number of measures have been put in place to support the continued supply of funding for trade – including economic stimulus and capital relief from governments and regulatory institutions and targeted support for trade finance. However, challenges remain for paperless trading. While progress has been made in recent years, action is now urgently required to help digitalise processes to continue providing vital financing to companies worldwide.

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Lockdown has brought the global economy to a grinding halt — disrupting cash flows and triggering a liquidity crisis.

In an article for Global Finance, UniCredit’s Deputy Head of Global Transaction Banking, Thomas Dusch, argues that once payables and receivables stocks pick up again, banks will be able to step in and plug the liquidity gap with traditional financing tools, such reverse factoring.

In the meantime, however, UniCredit can help buyers support their suppliers through its web-based dynamic discounting tool, offered in partnership with specialist fintech FinDynamic, which enables suppliers to submit invoices for early payment in exchange for a scaled discount, and buyers to select which invoices they would like to approve. This is a highly valuable tool now that most treasury departments must handle their business remotely.

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Speaking to Bloomberg, Orith Azoulay – Global Head of Green and Sustainable Finance at Natixis CIB – notes that the deal pipeline for sustainability-linked bonds will grow and issuance will materialise in the coming months.

The notes provide an alternative to green bonds, particularly for low-capex companies that have little use for funds that can only be spent on environmental projects. What’s more, sustainability-linked bonds may also be appealing to issues that have been put off from selling environmental debt because of potential greenwashing accusations.

This article was published on the Bloomberg Terminal.

In an interview with IFR, Karen Degouve, Head of Sustainable Business Development at Natixis, discusses the “concrete, measurable and time-bound” measures set by the bank to reduce the impact of its corporate and investment banking, asset management and insurance businesses on the natural world, as the COVID-19 crisis pushes biodiversity higher up the ESG agenda.

Natixis has been working for two years on its biodiversity commitment and has made great progress through its Green Weighting Factor, which colour-codes financing activities and assesses their impact on the bank’s balance sheet.

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