Ahren Lester

'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.

CBI, IGES launch Japanese 'transition strategies toolkit'

'Controversies' use in ESG ratings is 'tricky and underdiscussed'

The reporting of specific cases of sustainability "controversies" by environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings providers is challenging for companies to manage, ...

'Next gen' EU GBS frameworks 'really need to go into the weeds,' says NatWest

The "next generation" of green bonds incorporating the EU Green Bond Standard (EU GBS) requirements will demand "significant effort" from issuers that could slow the progress in developing frameworks and then issuing bonds under the landmark standard, according to NatWest.

Jamaican sustainable bond listing framework on track for September

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) expects to finalise its framework for issuers to list sustainable bonds by the end of September, as it continues it work by publishing a guide to issuing these labelled instruments.