Ahren Lester

Costa Rica to publish sustainable finance taxonomy next week

Costa Rica is preparing to publish its sustainable finance taxonomy next week, just over two months after completion of a consultation on the proposed 'green' list for the South American country.

'Annual social bond reporting doesn't make sense'

A major European issuer has argued that the sustainable bond market should look beyond annual reporting to better capture the long-term impact sought by instruments such as social and biodiversity-focused bonds.

Banks reporting 'very low' green assets amid data 'shortcomings'

European banks have reported "very low" green asset ratios (GAR) in the first year of the disclosures amid important shortcomings in the data applied which impact their comparability, according to Barclays.

Jamaica anticipates 'active' Caribbean sustainable bond market

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) expects an "active" sustainable bond market to develop in the Caribbean amid growing interest from investors and issuers, including the Jamaican government and corporates.

'Promising' future for sustainable sukuk as record 2024 on track

Medium-term growth in sustainable sukuk issuance remains "promising" amid a record-breaking start to 2024 for the sustainable Islamic bond market, with some key markets seeing almost half of total sustainable bond issuance in sukuk format.

Minority of sustainability-linked loan frameworks are 'high quality,' says Moody's

Moody's said a minority of the dedicated sustainability-linked loan (SLL) frameworks it has reviewed were judged to be high quality in terms of their metrics and targets set - in stark contrast to their bond equivalents.

NatWest issues first dedicated EV green bond from UK bank

South Africa considering SLB as sovereign sustainable bond debut looms

South Africa is considering issuing a ground-breaking sustainability-linked bond (SLB) as the sovereign continues to progress with its plans to make a sustainable bond debut soon.

Moody's: 'Stark difference' in debut sustainable bond issuers entering market in 2024

There has been a "quite dramatic" decline in new issuers entering the sustainable bond market in 2024 as issuers take longer to move from formulating frameworks to executing deals ...

Moody's SPO share surge continues as 'big four' consolidate

The 'big four' sustainable finance second-party opinion (SPO) providers consolidated their market share in the first six months of 2024, with Moody's seeing another significant jump in share.