Payments in a Blockchain World

Towards the SDGs: The importance of Innovation in Purchasing Practises

Towards the SDGs: Improving Robust Data Auditing and Monitoring

Towards the SDGs: Suggested Aspects of Future Regulations

Physical impact of climate change - how physical risks affect different assets.

How can investors diversify their portfolio across asset classes to gain the most benefit from Emerging Market Investments? This webinar will hear from different investors share their success and learnings in their field.

As major economies deal with trade and currency issues, how will this affect their smaller trading partners? This webinar will discuss the implications of these issues on emerging markets.

As markets mature, information asymmetries become harder to find and higher returns become increasingly elusive. Where is a good place for investors to focus and gain exposure to APAC at attractive prices and rates? The Venture Capital and Private Equity may be the place to find answers, though China A-Shares may also hold the keys to success. Indeed, Impact Investing is another alternative, which is burgeoning in the region.

This webinar will discuss:
- How investors from across the globe can access APAC
- Which sectors there is growing activity in, and why
- Which markets are worth a look, and what regulations in these markets.

Towards the SDGs: The Growing Trend for Regulation

With historically low-interest rates across all major economies, some investors are looking to smart beta to drive yield at low costs.

This webinar will explore the initial results that investors are seeing.

Nicolas Rabener, Managing Director, FactorResearch

A proliferation of ETFs has given ETF investors a buffet of options for any market condition.

This webinar will discuss which creative strategies are being used to counteract market volatility.

Allan Lane - Co-Founder - Algo-Chain

For companies and boards seeking to protect and create additional long-term value, leveraging diverse perspectives around the board table the power of their board diversity is critical.  Board diversity has been identified as a contributor to value creation for companies of all sizes and maximizes board effectiveness, by including a variety of perspectives, avoiding "group think" in the board room, and helping to ensure the board/company does not make risky decisions. This panel will bring together an investor representative, a corporate executive, and a board advisor/ESG consultant, all of whom have been successful and active in this space.  They will address the following questions:

- What is the optimal board composition for maximize corporate effectiveness? 
- What questions can and should directors ask themselves to enhance their boards' gender, social and professional diversity to obtain diversity of perspectives represented on the board? 
- What are concrete steps to take in the areas of board evaluations, refreshment, and succession planning to increase board diversity?

The next three decades will see the largest transfer of inter-generational wealth in history. In the U.S alone, we expect that between $30 and $40 trillion of wealth will be transferred from Baby Boomers to Generation X and onto Millennials.

Wealth managers will be dealing with a new generation of investors who are far more values-driven than earlier ones. And research indicates that both women and millennials are more likely to invest consistently with their values. A survey by BlackRock found that 67% of millennials want investments that reflect their social and environmental values, while 76% of women said the same.

Independent reports from Standard Life and JPMorgan forecast the global impact investment sector will be worth $1 trillion by 2020, compared to $60 billion currently.

This massive and wide-ranging trend raises a number of challenges for wealth advisors who want to succeed for their clients in this new environment. The panel will address these related issues:

● What is the most reliable methodology for identifying publicly traded companies that truly commit to specific ESG/Impact values in their operations?

● Can an ESG/Impact-driven portfolio perform at least at parity with a more traditional portfolio?

● What's the most effective way for a wealth advisor to convey to potential investors regarding his/her commitment to and expertise with ESG/Impact investing?

● Is the "typical" wealth advisory firm properly staffed and resourced to deal with this rapidly approaching trend? If not, what still needs to be done?

Moderated by James A."Buff" Parham, President & Owner, Parham & Associates

Randy Kaufman, Senior Vice President, EMM Wealth
Ron Bates, Managing Director & Portfolio Manager, 1919 Investment Counsel
Scott Conlon, CFA, Equity Investment Specialist, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Julie Davitz, Head of Impact Solutions for Wealth Management, Bank of the West - BNP Paribas

This webinar looks at how asset managers are deploying various asset classes to solve the sustainable development goals. While public equity is certainly a popular choice, other choices like fixed income instruments, and alternative investments are being employed in the quest for out-comes based investing. Our panel will answer questions such as:

- What kinds of returns and risks are being seen across the asset classes?
- Which asset managers are focused on which asset classes?
- Can cross-asset class frameworks be used, or does each asset class deserve its own framework for success?

Moderated Sandy Trust, Senior Manager - Wealth & Asset Management, EY
Igor Tsukerman, President & Chief Investment Officer, Passed Pawn Advisors

The ideal retirement or pension fund starts the drawdown phase only after decades of savings. Similarly, many benefits of ESG become more easily recognisable after multiple quarters or years. This long-term scope conflicts with wall street's penchant for quarterly earnings. Should short-term investors be thinking more like long-term investors? This webinar will discuss:

- Methods of valuing ESG
- Benefits of applying ESG decision frameworks to your portfolios
- How Pension funds look at potential investments

Moderated by - Veronica Broomes, CSR and Sustainability Consultant

Alessia Falsarone, Managing Director of Portfolio Strategy and Risk and Head of Sustainable Investing for Developed Markets Fixed Income, PineBridge Investments

Blake Pontius, CFA, Director of Sustainable Investing and Global Portfolio Specialist, William Blair Investment Management

Derek Butcher, Senior ESG Analyst, Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment, RBC Global Asset Management

Even though the momentum in the implementation of Sustainable Finance has grown considerably in recent years, it still represents only a small fraction of total financial flows. The current status quo, if continued, is unlikely to deliver a successful transition to a more sustainable economic model. Estimates of the scale of the investment required to achieve the EU’s targets for a more sustainable future runs into hundreds of billions of euros annually (or trillions over next 10 to 15 years).

Considerable research has been carried out to suggest solutions that could build the scale. One of the papers prepared by the Sustainable Finance Study Group and presented to G20, for example, outlines three pathways for Scaling up Sustainable Finance. These include a timely and efficient shift to Capital Markets from Banks’ balance sheets, the Development of Sustainable Private Equity and Venture Capital, and the application of Technology and Digital Finance to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.

Pressure grows for the integration of Sustainability across the entire value creation chain and asset classes.

What approaches do Financial Institutions take to build the scale? How are they evolving? Can we achieve the required scale if ESG is not a part of the ‘mainstream finance’? We will discuss these and other issues in our webinar. We will also hear about the challenges and the developments in sustainable securitisation.

We have invited an esteemed panel of speakers:

Ana Harris – MD, Global Head of Equity Strategist; State Street Global Advisors

Graham Smith – Director, Global Head of Sustainability, HSBC

Corinne Bendersky – AD, Sustainable Finance, Corporate and Infrastructure Ratings; S&P

Trevor Allen – Sustainability Research Analyst, BNP Paribas

Moderated by – Dana Hanby – MD, ESG Nexus who will discuss the approaches that Financial Institutions are taking to scale up sustainable finance. We will be delighted if you join the conversation.

This session brings together two recognized and seasoned experts to discuss how both wellness practices and holistic health care management are driving better outcomes for individuals.

Given the ever escalating cost of health care, it has become obvious to many that staying healthy and efficiently managing health care needs is the only way forward. The intersection of these realms is an intense focus on the individual being served with a game plan uniquely fitted to his/her particular needs.


The panelists will address:
● What exactly is "holistic" health care management and why is it superior to more traditional approaches?
● What distinguishes "wellness" from our typical understanding of "prevention"?
● How do wellness practitioners and health care managers work together on behalf of a given individual?
● What are the challenges regarding scaling these endeavors given the strong entrenchment of players in the health care industry's status quo?
● How do health insurance companies in particular view and engage with wellness practitioners and independent health care managers?

The low interest rate environment has created demand for yield investors to seek diversification into new and alternative asset classes. The rise of Fintech and demand for alternative credit has created opportunities for investors to diversity their portfolio by investing into discounted invoices.



In this session, we’ll cover:

How investors can gain access to an uncorrelated, liquid asset class previously only available to banks and specialist finance companies
An introduction to investing in invoice finance, what it is and how it works
What to look for when investing in discounted invoices, including security, risk and protection
How Timelio provides direct access to alternative investments and ways this can be used to diversify a portfolio with desired risk and return preferences

Towards the SDGs: The Importance of Collaboration