News
The KangaNews-Westpac New Zealand Sustainable Finance Summit 2020 took place in Auckland late in the year – its very format as an in-person event testimony to New Zealand’s world-leading performance in the COVID-19 pandemic. Market participants came together to talk about a sector, economy and world in a state of high-velocity flux.
The KangaNews Sustainable Debt Summit 2020 migrated to an online format but this did not stop it attracting the widest range of speaker perspectives in its history. Delegates heard perspectives from across financial markets and also the whole economy, covering the urgent need for capital flows to shift to support a critical transition.
On 10 March, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) announced it will end its term auction facility and corporate open market operations on 16 March. The support mechanisms allowed banks to borrow short-term funds using eligible collateral and were part of the RBNZ’s emergency response to the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020.
In November 2020, the New Zealand Sustainable Finance Forum unveiled its “roadmap for action” – a pathway to sustainability focused on the contribution that can, and must, be made by the financial system. Thus began the implementation phase. The forum’s new co-chairs, Bridget Coates and Ross Pennington, provide an exclusive update on the progress being made and the road ahead.
Jacki Johnson and Simon O’Connor, co-chairs of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, explain how the initiative’s roadmap, launched in November 2020, will bring together the finance sector to lead the drive for a more sustainable, resilient and prosperous Australia.
If Australian corporate engagement with sustainable finance were measured by labelled green, social and sustainability bond issuance, progress remained underwhelming in 2020. However, issuers, investors and other market participants at the KangaNews Sustainable Debt Summit 2020 spoke of deepening commitments to environmental, social and governance risk mitigation.
One of the most exciting aspects of sustainable finance from a capital-market perspective is the potential for the transition to a low-carbon economy to produce a huge supply of investible assets in a world that has been capex constrained. Westpac Institutional Bank is taking a lead position in Australia’s renewable-energy space – a key sector for investment growth.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is turbocharging the sustainable-finance operation within its institutional business, including some key new hires and more to come. The team is focused on working with clients to gain deep understanding of their ESG risks and, from there, assisting with transition. The bank’s ambition is high.
Resimac’s first residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) foray for 2021 showcased the consistency with which it approaches funding markets, the borrower says. It also helped set internal pricing to maintain competitiveness in the hotly contested prime-mortgage origination market.
On 9 March, ALE Direct Property Trust (Baa2), a subsidiary of ALE Property Group, mandated Citi, Goldman Sachs and National Australia Bank to arrange a series of investor calls beginning 11 March regarding a potential 3-5 year, Australian dollar denominated, floating-rate note transaction.
The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) (AA-/Aa1) launched a five-year, Kangaroo, bail-inable, benchmark transaction on 9 March. The deal is being offered in either or both fixed- and floating-rate note formats and has indicative price guidance of 65 basis points area over swap benchmarks.