Leading through challenging times

On January 8, 2020 Bloomberg LP reported global issuance of green bonds and loans, as well as other types of sustainable debt, totaled $465 billion in 2019, up 78% from $261 billion in 2018, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF. The outstanding global volume of sustainable debt now exceeds $1 trillion.

Green bonds, where the proceeds are used for environmentally-friendly projects, made up the majority of the issuance last year, totaling $271 billion, the data show. Sustainability-linked loans, which often have interest rates linked to a borrower’s performance on environmental, social or governance issues, were the fastest-growing sub-sector.

Join our panel of experts for a discussion about the expanding global supply of sustainable debt across the corporate, municipal and and sovereign markets into 2020 and beyond.

Panelists:
Alessia Falsarone, SASB FSA, Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Investing at PineBridge Investments
Patrick Drum, Saturna Capital: Portfolio Manager of the Sustainable Fixed Income Fund & Amana Participation Fund
Eric Glass, CFA, Portfolio Manager - Fixed Income Impact Strategies

Moderated by: Paul Ellis, Sustainable Finance Consultant, Founder of The Sustainable Finance Podcast

What is in store for Fintech in 2020? We've seen both massive investment in fintech companies, and impressive advancements in the value propositions these fintechs are creating. But have the best ideas been absorbed into the market already, or are there still ways for fintechs to create value?

This webinar will bring together industry leaders to discuss:

- What is the size of the Fintech Market, and what are the prospects going into 2020?
- How much market penetration have Fintechs achieved?
- Are asset managers using the tools effectively?
- How can asset managers work with Fintechs to create more value for the industry?

Allan Lane, AlgoChain
Leyla Imanirad, Bristol Gate Capital Partners Inc.

This will discuss the two major trends increasingly relevant for the development of Fintech ecosystems across developing countries from the perspective of a Venture Capital Partner.

In this webinar, Alexander Piskunov, a partner of a San-Francisco based VC fund Ruvento Ventures, will explore:
- The potential of Digital Banking to innovate the stale customer experience in metropolitan regions and reach the previously unbanked population of rural regions in underdeveloped economies. An example of this is DoPay — a British cloud-based Fintech startup offering payroll services to the populations of India, Africa, and Asia.

- The benefits of Cryptocurrencies as a more stable alternative to currencies, especially in countries with unsophisticated financial regulations. An example of this will be Ripio — a startup helping the Latin American merchants to process international transactions.

- Why the accurate identification of customer niche, regulatory compliance, and a customer-centric approach to solution development are crucial for the long-term success of a Fintech startup.

- How a fintech startup founder can identify the smartest money, outlining the cases of Y-Combinator, Fintech Innovation Lab, and Plug-and-Play as early-stage acceleration options.

This webinar will be interesting for venture capital firms across the US and Europe who are interested in expanding their portfolio to encompass Fintech from the developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and South-East Asia.

Alexander Piskunov is a partner of a San-Francisco based VC fund Ruvento Ventures (http://www.ruvento.com), specialising on AI, robotics and mobility investments and being responsible for portfolio development and fundraising from corporations. Previously, Alexander has studied finance at Cambridge, worked in tech-focused IB and cross-border PE funds in Europe and Russia

https://www.facebook.com/alex.piskunov

2019 ended with general fund flows from equities to bonds. ETFs have seen yet another year of growth, holding $4.28 trillion in AUM. Combined with trade and elections, what may this mean for the market in 2020?

Join this webinar to hear about:

- What asset classes have seen flows?
- What are the prospects for future flows?
- How can investors prepare their portfolios accordingly?

Tony Yousefian, Beckett Asset Management
Christopher Teschmacher, Legal & General Investment Management

Moderated by Jean-François, Principal, Terres Neuves Consulting

What are the opportunities and risks for markets as we head in to 2020? We take a look back at the key drivers from 2019 and consider the implications for the year ahead. Are these enough to re-ignite fundamental growth? 

Growth – Is recession risk still on the horizon?
Monetary Policy – Do we expect it to remain supportive?
Geopolitics – Political risks prevail, but are they enough to cause a slowdown? 

Presented by Gavin Counsell and James Pearson from the Allianz RiskMaster Multi Asset Team

Sustainability: the next megatrend. How to integrate ESG and impact investing in a multi-asset strategy.

Bi-weekly webcam discussions on markets, funds, finance and economics. Each episode provides an overview of one ecosystem within investment management.

This week: The World of Shipping with Nautilus Labs' CEO Matt Heider

Bi-weekly webcam discussions on markets, funds, finance and economics. Each episode discusses a topic within investment management.

This week: Behavioral Finance with Nathan Maddix

- biases in investment, such as equity premium puzzle
- base rate neglect and other probabilistic errors people make when trying to do multi-stage math for investments
- sunk cost bias/fallacy, which you mentioned in the first link above with Pacific Current Group
- nudging toward savings, typically that's what we would discuss - how to change the default options in defined benefit plans (pretty popular)

Kelly Ye, Director of Research at Index IQ, discusses the latest trends in Factor Investing, including:

Factor Investing in Fixed Income
Factor Investing in alternatives
ESG as a factor

This will discuss the two major trends increasingly relevant for the development of Fintech ecosystems across developing countries from the perspective of a Venture Capital Partner.

In this webinar, Alexander Piskunov, a partner of a San-Francisco based VC fund Ruvento Ventures, will explore:
- The potential of Digital Banking to innovate the stale customer experience in metropolitan regions and reach the previously unbanked population of rural regions in underdeveloped economies. An example of this is DoPay — a British cloud-based Fintech startup offering payroll services to the populations of India, Africa, and Asia.

- The benefits of Cryptocurrencies as a more stable alternative to currencies, especially in countries with unsophisticated financial regulations. An example of this will be Ripio — a startup helping the Latin American merchants to process international transactions.

- Why the accurate identification of customer niche, regulatory compliance, and a customer-centric approach to solution development are crucial for the long-term success of a Fintech startup.

- How a fintech startup founder can identify the smartest money, outlining the cases of Y-Combinator, Fintech Innovation Lab, and Plug-and-Play as early-stage acceleration options.

This webinar will be interesting for venture capital firms across the US and Europe who are interested in expanding their portfolio to encompass Fintech from the developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and South-East Asia.

Alexander Piskunov is a partner of a San-Francisco based VC fund Ruvento Ventures (http://www.ruvento.com), specialising on AI, robotics and mobility investments and being responsible for portfolio development and fundraising from corporations. Previously, Alexander has studied finance at Cambridge, worked in tech-focused IB and cross-border PE funds in Europe and Russia

https://www.facebook.com/alex.piskunov

Investors are increasingly called upon to assess and report on their investments' alignment with the Paris Agreement and to identify to what degree their investment portfolios are on a 1.5°C-2°C temperature change pathway. This creates pressure - but also an opportunity - for investors to engage with investee companies, issuers, or developers to ensure risks are being identified and communicated, and that adequate mitigation and adaptation strategies are in place. Mainstreaming climate risk assessment is vital for well-informed investment analysis and decision making, but also to guide structured engagement on the topic of climate change.

Understanding how climate change affects different assets and how to analyse the potential negative impacts across investment horizons and asset classes is on top of the agenda for many investors aiming to measure climate-related risks. This webinar provides a high-level overview of the critical aspects to be considered when analysing climate risks, what data is needed and available for such analysis, and how to interpret the results in decision-useful terms. The webinar also discusses the importance of taking into account the type of assets at risk by showing concrete examples and case studies on how these challenges are being tackled in practice.

With historic yield curve inversions around the world in 2019, 2020 is poised to be another year where fixed income markets will be carefully watched by investors. This panel will focus a discussion on topics most important investors from a fixed income perspective, such as:

- Potential monetary policy changes by the FED and the ECB
- Global trade between the US and china
- US Presidential Elections & Brexit

Panellists
Lothar Mentel, CIO, Tatton Investment Management
Lidia Treiber, CFA - Director - Research, WisdomTree Asset Management
Jon Jonsson, Senior Portfolio Manager - Global Fixed Income, Neuberger Berman

Moderated by Justin Simler, Independent Expert