ESG and Sustainable Finance

Unternehmensübergreifende Weiterbildung

An wen richtet sich die Weiterbildung?

  • Financial advisors
  • Investment advisors
  • Private bankers
  • Accountants
  • Wealth Managers
  • Attorneys
  • ESG advisors
  • Auditors

Erreichtes Niveau

Fortgeschritten

Dauer

20,00 Stunde(n)

Sprache(n) der Dienstleistung

EN

Ziele

With ESG being in the market since 2005 it the last years that it has evolved to a growing necessity for companies and financial institutions. A norm of the market soon to become necessity, should be first of all followed and supported by banks, insurers and investment firms. A driver for sustainability and responsibility towards a safer and better world.

Inhalt

KEY DEFINITIONS, DEVELOPMENTS AND DRIVERS

  • Importance of environmental, social and governance risks for the economy
  • The concept and risks of climate change
  • Definition of sustainable finance and ESG investing
  • Brief introduction to key concepts in a historical context – corporate and social responsibility, ethical, socially responsible, thematic and impact investing
  • Main international Agreements: UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Paris Agreement on Climate Change
  • European Commission initiatives: Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth
  • UN PRI Interventions: Principles for Responsible Investment, Principles for Sustainable Insurance and Principles of Responsible Banking

ESG FACTORS AND IMPACT ON SECURITY ANALYSIS/VALUATION

  • Identification of the general environmental, social and governance factors/issues
  • The concept of materiality and its importance for the ESG analysis
  • Materiality map of ESG risks and opportunities among sectors
  • Impact of ESG characteristics/profile on equity valuation, risk and performance
  • Impact of ESG characteristics/profile on bond investments’ risk/return
  • Reporting and sources of analysis of non-financial information
  • Main providers ESG ratings and company analysis

SUSTAINABLE INVESTING APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES

  • Classification and basic principles of ESG investing approaches
  • Negative screening approaches: exclusion/negative screening and norms based screening
  • Positive screening approaches: best-in-class and integration
  • Generating impact: Thematic investing and impact investing
  • ESG considerations in the process of portfolio construction
  • Trends over time and world regions

ENGAGEMENT: ELEVATING THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES AT COMPANIES’ LEVEL

  • Understanding engagement versus exclusion/divesting
  • Tools for engagement: active ownership/shareholders’ activism, constructive dialogue and proxy voting
  • The relevance of corporate social responsibility to attain and disclose sustainability goals
  • Greenwashing and associated reputational responsibility/risk
  • Role of institutional investors’ engagement in investee companies to improve ESG practices/orientation
  • Stewardship codes

SUSTAINABLE MUTUAL FUNDS AND COLLECTIVE INVESTMENT VEHICLES

  • Diversity of sustainable mutual funds based on different investing approaches
  • Key findings of studies comparing ESG and traditional mutual funds
  • Active and passive investing by sustainable mutual funds: the values and challenges of each approach
  • The market of sustainable ETFs
  • Definition of an ESG benchmark, variety of ESG benchmarks according to investing approaches and use of benchmarks for performance evaluation
  • Climate benchmarks and low-carbon benchmarks
  • The process and providers of ESG ratings for mutual funds
  • How should investors and financial advisors read/interpret ESG/sustainable ratings?

A MAIN EXAMPLE OF IMPACT INVESTING: GREEN BONDS AND SOCIAL BONDS

  • Definition of green bonds and their role for environmental sustainability
  • Eligible projects for green bond issues
  • The green bond market
  • Main differences between Green Bond Principles and the EU-green bond standard
  • Pricing of green bonds versus pricing of conventional bonds
  • Definition of social bonds and Social Bond Principles
  • Green and Social together: sustainable bonds

SHORT ANALYSIS OF OTHER SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

  • SG criteria/approaches in insurance products
  • ESG criteria/approaches in banking products
  • ESG criteria and private equity
  • ESG/sustainable certificates

EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON THE INTEGRATION OF ESG FACTORS BY INVESTMENT FIRMS AND FINANCIAL ADVISORS

  • Main EU-level harmonized criteria to determine whether an activity is environmentally sustainable
  • Disclosure of information by investment firms and financial advisors on the integration of sustainability risks in investment decision-making processes and advice on financial products.
  • Integration of sustainability factors under the UCITS, AIFMD and MIFID II regulations.

Zertifikat, Diplom

Certificate of attendance

Veranstaltungsart

  • 20 hours of self study including articles and presentations
  • Full lifetime access to learning material

Zusätzliche Informationen

Instructor:

Mark R Outhwaite
ESG expert, AML / prevention of financial crime, trainer

Kontakt für diese Weiterbildung

Anastasios Avranas