DATE & LOCATION
12 February 2020
09:00 – 11:30
Registration opens at 08:30
EBF Meeting Centre
Avenue Des Arts 56, 1000 Bruxelles
Finance alone, is not a silver bullet solution. But without finance, we cannot reach the objectives of Paris Agreement. The success will depend on collaboration and innovative thinking.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid (COP 25) the EBF presented its recommendations on how banks’ support of the transition to a sustainable economy and a carbon neutral future can be further incentivized. The recommendations are part of a new EBF report titled ‘Encouraging and Rewarding Sustainability‘ that identifies how public-private cooperation can be leveraged to accelerate sustainable finance.
To further stimulate and contribute to the debate, we will be hosting an event in Brussels, to discuss with European institutions, regulators, banks and academics how to scale up sustainable activities, mobilize and redirect private financial flows to support such activities, develop new instruments and increase the number of eligible projects and help capital markets developments.
FINAL PROGRAMME
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08:30 – 09:00 Registration
09:00 – 09:10 Opening remarks
- Wim Mijs, Chief Executive Officer, EBF
09:10 – 09:30 Accelerating sustainable finance in the banking sector
- Christian Ossig, Chair of the Executive Committee of the EBF
09:30 – 10:25 Panel discussion: A European Green Deal: what’s next for sustainable finance
Panel:
- Sebastijan Hrovatin, Deputy Head of Unit Sustainable Finance , Bank Regulation and Supervision, European Commission
- Daniel Farchy, Equity Investment Officer, European Investment Bank
- Judith M. Post, Programme Manager Climate Investments, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy
- Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head of Responsible Business, BBVA, chair of the EBF Sustainable Finance WG
Moderator:
- Christian Ossig, Chair of the EBF Executive Committee
10:25 – 11:20 Panel discussion: Regulatory treatment of sustainable funding
Panel:
- Slavka Eley, Head of Banking Markets, Innovation and Products , European Banking Authority
- Raul Rosales, Research Fellow at Centre for Climate Finance & Investment at Imperial College Business School and Visiting Lecturer
- Claudia Pasquini, Head Risks, Controls and Sustainability Department, Italian Banking Association
- Alexander Privitera, Senior Adviser, Commerzbank
Moderator:
- Charles Morel, CEO & Partner, MLAdvisory
11:20 – 11:30 Closing remarks
This workshop is organized with the cooperation of
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ACCOMMODATION
Stanhope Hotel Brussels by Thon Hotels
Rue du Commerce 9
1000 Bruxelles
EBF negotiated preferential rates for event participants. Rooms will be served based on the first comes, first serves basis.
In order to benefit from the discount please follow booking link HERE!
The post EBF Workshop ‘Encouraging and Rewarding Sustainability’ appeared first on EBF.
]]>Publication date: 28 May 2019
Banks play an essential and pivotal role in financing the global transition towards a sustainable low-carbon economy and recognise this as part of their purpose and role in society. Banks are taking their responsibility very seriously, especially in Europe, where they finance two thirds of the economy. The European banks are increasingly considering sustainability as a key factor of their business strategy and a number of banks have committed to steering their portfolios to meet the Paris agreement, for investments in sustainable finance. The European Banking Federation was one of the first endorsers of the principles and is committed to promoting this initiative in the banking sector in Europe. Together with UNEP FI, the EBF organised a Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) workshop on 5 February 2019 and an educational webinar on 14 May 2019 and actively promoted the initiative across European and international fora. The response to this consultation aims at improving the clarity and operationality of the Principles and at pointing out some most challenging areas from the operational and implementation perspective, where additional clarification or provision of illustrative examples would be desirable. The UNEP FI intention to cooperate with experts in further development of tools, methodologies and approaches to assist banks with the implementation is very welcome. To promote additional adoption throughout the banking sector, it is important that a certain form of training and assistance be accessible to all banks. The EBF stands ready to continue its cooperation with the UNEP FI to provide any assistance in further promotion of the PRB adoption and its awareness and support amongst banking leaders.
EBF advisor: Denisa Mularova
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]]>EBF advisor: Denisa Mularova
Publication date: 15 February 2019
- The EBF advocates for a gradual approach as to the scope as well as introduction of the social and governance aspects. The “ECO” label should focus on environmental issues first, while only key social aspects such as human and labour rights, subject to availability of reliable data, should be included as a minimal social safeguard. As the social aspect develops in the taxonomy regulation, the scope of the ecolabel could be further enlarged. Development of a separate “sustainable label” that encompasses all aspects of the Environmental, Social and Governance criteria (ESG) could also be envisaged. Considerations could also be given to the development of labels with a different “degree of sustainability”, subject to operational feasibility and data availability.
- The scope and the strategies to be reflected in the Ecolabel criteria would depend on its objectives. Investment funds addressed to retail clients and pension products should be included in the EU Ecolabel first. The EU green bonds as well as some other retail financial products such as life insurance could be targeted thereafter or subsequently. All strategies have their merits and use, depending on the objectives of the investment product. A combination of a minimum number of strategies could be envisaged.
- The labels should add value to the product and act as a differential factor. The ambition should be that at least 5o % of investments are/be green. However, it may be difficult to have products that can qualify for the label in the initial phase, at least in some markets. Besides setting minimum thresholds, it is important to provide transparency to investors about the actual percentages used. Transparency and useful, understandable information to end-investors about eco-labelled products is as important as setting portfolio requirements. Consideration could be given to product-type specific thresholds.
Find the questionnaire with the EBF answers under the link below:
Subscribe to the EBF Weekly + FinReg Agenda
Every Friday at noon you can receive the EBF Weekly + Financial Regulation Agenda. This agenda presents an overview of upcoming European and international meetings and conferences in financial regulation, as well as important general financial and economic events and key EBF meetings for the week ahead. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to the EBF Morning Brief
The EBF Morning Brief is published Monday through Friday morning and brings you the top banking headlines, relevant announcements from the EU institutions and the latest from the EBF and its members, national banking associations in 32 countries in Europe. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
The post EU Ecolabel for Financial Products Questionnaire: EBF response appeared first on EBF.
]]>EBF advisor: Denisa Mularova
Publication date: 14 December 2018
The European Banking Federation supports the holistic and harmonized approach of the European Parliament to the sustainability agenda. To mobilize the capital for sustainable activities, we recognize the need to identify in a clear and operational manner what constitutes sustainable characteristics, improve transparency, data collection as well as step up the educational efforts. While recognizing the challenge of the tasks, it is important to find a balance between i) clear and unambiguous definitions that adequately identify all the risks and opportunities depending on the economic sectors considered, ii) greenwashing, iii) transparency on one hand and the operational feasibility to allow its usage by companies to improve their sustainable actions and reach the objectives set out in the Paris agreement on the other hand. It needs to be kept in mind that only “easy to understand” and “ready to use” tools will enable the mobilization of all actors in the required scale and timeframe.
Subscribe to the EBF Weekly + FinReg Agenda
Every Friday at noon you can receive the EBF Weekly + Financial Regulation Agenda. This agenda presents an overview of upcoming European and international meetings and conferences in financial regulation, as well as important general financial and economic events and key EBF meetings for the week ahead. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to the EBF Morning Brief
The EBF Morning Brief is published Monday through Friday morning and brings you the top banking headlines, relevant announcements from the EU institutions and the latest from the EBF and its members, national banking associations in 32 countries in Europe. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
The post Taxonomy: EBF responds to the EP draft report appeared first on EBF.
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