Green market broadens asset base

The green-financing market is expanding beyond traditional sectors such as renewable energy and green buildings to a broader concept of sustainability - giving investors more opportunities and deepening the pool of liquidity available.

“Investors are very hungry for these instruments so the broader the asset classes and application the better,” Katharine Tapley, ANZ’s Head of Sustainable Finance told ANZ Institutional on podcast ahead of the bank’s annual debt conference in the Hunter Valley.

“I think though one of the great things emerging out of this market is the transition to broader asset classes across social assets as well as the broader concept of sustainability.”

“This is pretty exciting as it captures a larger range of borrower and provides more opportunity on the investor side.”

You can listen to the podcast below. Part one of the conversation is avialiable HERE.  

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“Investors are very hungry for these instruments so the broader the asset classes and application the better.” 
Katharine Tapley, Head of Sustainable Finance, ANZ

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The supply of green credit will also increase as more companies and senior management focus on how to deal with sustainable development and climate change, linking funding requirements to their environmental strategy.

There is a rising level of engagement in the C-suite around issues of sustainable development and climate change according to Tapley.

“We are seeing this now translating into treasury teams and the realisation that a company’s ambition in this regard can actually be connected to their funding requirements,” she said.

Next frontier

Delegates at ANZ’s annual Debt Conference will also hear the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on financial markets.

Currently the use of AI is mainly limited to equities, secondary markets, foreign exchange and rates but not primary bond markets. ANZ’s Head of Debt Capital Markets Paul White believes AI can be employed at the backend of the primary market process to speed up settlement periods.

“I’d like to think in a few years’ time we can get to next day settlement or certainly a quicker settlement than we have now,” he said.

“I think [AI] is clearly front-and-centre in terms of how I’m thinking about the world going forward.”

Sharon Klyne is Associate Director, Communications, Institutional at ANZ

This story is part two in a series of two. You can read part one HERE.

ANZ will host its annual Hunter Valley Debt Conference from February 28 to March 1. You can read coverage of the event on https://institutional.anz.com/.