ESG Investing
WEBINAR | CFA ESG Exam Tips and Strategies
A Short Introduction to GRI Standards
The foundation of sustainability reporting is for an organization to identify and prioritize its impacts on the economy, environment, and people - to be transparent about their impacts.
https://www.globalreporting.org/media/wtaf14tw/a-short-introduction-to-the-gri-standards.pdf
Martin Hakker joins Marco Polo Exchange as Chief Revenue Officer
Martin Hakker joins Marco Polo Exchange as Chief Revenue Officer
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Marco Polo Exchange (MPX), a US-headquartered financial services and technology firm dedicated to breaking down the barriers to cross-border investment and capital raising, with a special focus on catering to the ESG marketplace, today announces the appointment of Martin Hakker as Chief Revenue Officer.
Martin joins MPX with over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. Prior to MPX, Martin spent 25 years at Fidessa, holding roles of Executive Vice President, Head of Americas, and Chief Executive Officer at Fidessa Canada. During his tenure at Fidessa, Martin used his entrepreneurial skills to lead Fidessa's growth to the industry-leading standard in the US, Canada, and LATAM.
Before Fidessa, Martin was a principal at TCAM Systems, where he and TCAM were at the forefront of automating stock exchanges throughout the globe. His roots in capital formation, lowering entry barriers through cutting-edge technology, and automation led to important disruption across products and solutions for the industry. Martin's leadership and expertise will be essential in building long-term partnerships with MPX's growing client base, developing new cross-functional partnerships, and promoting a culture of engagement, collaboration, and innovation with the growing talent at MPX.
"I am excited to be part of such a fantastic team at MPX, executing the vision of lowering the cost of capital throughout the world by building a platform to enable global access to local financial products," said Martin Hakker. "I believe it can be a powerful catalyst in expanding the financing options of companies across the world. This current wave of data and blockchain technologies is enabling an exciting extension of market reach, something my generation of technologies began, but this generation promises to accelerate. A bold challenge is irresistible!"
"Our ambitions are large – we seek to build the leading global marketplace for financing SMEs as the world economy de-carbonizes and grows sustainably," said Steve Carlson, Chairman, Magellan Global Inc., parent of MPX.
"Martin brings over three decades of building and managing some of the premier electronic platforms in global financial markets. MPX takes him back to an early passion - bringing technologies to local capital markets. We are delighted to have the benefit of Martin's extraordinary leadership and expertise," said Vinode Ramgopal, Executive Chairman, MPX.
Marco Polo Exchange (MPX) is a Delaware-incorporated financial services and technology firm dedicated to expanding cross-border capital raising and investing. We leverage specialist regulatory licenses, blockchain, AI technologies, and ESG compliance to match global buyers with local issuance and investment opportunities. Our mission is to lower the cost of capital for SMEs around the world. Our broker-dealer, Marco Polo Securities, is the leading 15a-6 chaperone broker in the US markets.
For further information, please contact:
David Snyder, CAO
+1 347 745-6448
info@mpxchange.com
Financial Times
Britain’s asset management industry is pushing the government to establish a new class of fund employing blockchain technology, highlighting how financial firms are tapping the architecture that underlies the crypto market. The Investment Association, the trade body representing the UK’s asset management industry that oversees close to £10tn for clients worldwide, will call on Thursday for the government and City regulator to work “at pace” to approve blockchain-traded funds that will issue digital tokens to investors instead of traditional shares or fund units. Significant cost savings for end investors could be achieved by using the digital ledgers known as blockchain, to drive multiple efficiency improvements in the existing laborious processes involved in buying and selling mutual funds, according to the Investment Association. The group will also propose the creation of a new task force to examine how distributed ledger technology could accelerate the creation of new products and services as well as allowing more investors to customise their portfolios with holdings in private companies and cryptocurrencies.
Climate & Capital Media
“Standards setters are not competing with each other, they are competing with technology. But they don’t realize it.”
The following article originally appeared on GreenBiz.com as part of our partnership with GreenBiz Group, a media and events company that accelerates the just transition to a clean economy.
Whatever your take was on COP26, a key takeaway at the intersection of capital markets and climate was the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). During the initial days in Glasgow, the IFRS Foundation announced the formation of the new board, an organization meant to develop a global baseline of sustainability disclosures for financial markets.
The formation has been widely celebrated in the sustainable finance community — a community that has grown substantially in the past decade and has swelled in the past year.
So what does the formation of the ISSB mean for the evolution and efficacy of ESG reporting? To answer that, I checked in with those who I thought would know better than most: Jean Rogers, founder of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and, as of this month, global head of ESG at Blackstone; and Robert Eccles, founding chairman of SASB, professor of management practice at Oxford and a founder of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
I found their insights on the ISSB to be unique and invaluable; promising, concerning and exciting alike. I think you’ll find their takes illuminating as well.
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
What most excites you about the newly formed ISSB and its ability to shift capital markets and the real economy to one that is clean and just?
Jean Rogers: Consolidation and maturing of the industry are essential. The opportunity to align global markets on an approach to ESG, while allowing jurisdictions to tailor standards to their priorities and point of view. For example, diversity in India is often interpreted as differing abilities rather than skin color. Decarbonization has a different meaning in Malaysia than in Canada.
Bob Eccles: Financial accounting standards and reporting requirements have created the deep and liquid capital markets we have today which have generated substantial wealth. But the information shaping these markets is now too narrow and too short-term for the capital markets to contribute to a sustainable society. Resource allocation decisions by companies and investors need to change, and the standards developed by the ISSB will give both the information they need to do so.
How G7 Could Help the Debt-Distressed Markets
How G7 could help the debt-distressed
This small and wealthy group with its outsize power is uniquely positioned to help low-income countries manage deteriorating macroeconomic conditions
Venture Forward
While Canada’s public venture market has delivered on its promise of growth over the last several decades, markets are not static. TSX Venture Exchange is focused on identifying and seizing opportunities to build from our position of strength to ensure that Canada's public venture market remains a critical driver of economic prosperity, and maintaining our competitive edge on the global stage.
In this white paper, we outline three broad areas where TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian public venture ecosystem can take action to innovate, adapt and evolve over the coming years:
REDUCE
barriers and burdens to access public venture capital
EXPAND
the global base of investors and capital that support and finance issuers
GROW
empower and strengthen the public venture capital ecosystem and its participants
Over the coming months, we aim to engage with representatives from across our stakeholder community to gain a full understanding of how our markets can better support early-stage companies. As we embark together on this journey, we will also share progress updates and our plans.
Reuters European Renewables Asset Management
Read Reuters European Renewables Asset Management Report here
Finverse Forum
Marco Polo Exchange was invited to present POLO at the Finverse Forum on Asset Tokenization Technology & Enterprise Applications hosted by Deloitte in Luxembourg.
See video here.
Read the full event article here.
For many rural customers in Africa, distributed renewable energy sources such as mini-grids represent a cheaper alternative to diesel generators or main grid extension. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Africa Energy Outlook 2022, “mini-grids and stand-alone systems, mostly solar based, are the most viable solutions,” to reaching universal energy access in Africa by 2030.
💡 Crossboundary’s Mini-Grid Innovation Lab works to test, iterate and analyze data on the factors that impact the commercial viability and reliability of mini-grids.
The Lab recently took a closer look at consumption patterns, finding reliable power boosts consumption by ~9X.
Here’s why this matters:
📉 Unreliable power hinders African businesses and commercial enterprises
African businesses have a hard time reaching their full potential without access to constant power. Lack of reliable power is consistently cited as one of the top challenges African businesses face today.
These businesses are the highest-consuming customer segment for mini-gids, and they have zero tolerance for unreliable power – they will adopt expensive alternatives such as diesel generators or scale back operations to maintain some profitability.
Growing African businesses is key to economic development on the continent. According to The World Bank findings, there is a strong negative relationship between power outages and employment that reduces the probability of employment by approximately 35% in a community.
📈 Customers reward reliable power by consuming ~9X more
Our data from more than 67 mini-grid sites supports this finding – we calculated a grid score for each site based on an assessment of whether the grid was on or off as indicated by smart-meter data. We then conducted a clustering analysis to group these sites into low, medium, and high-reliability sites.
The analysis shows that the average consumption per user (ACPU) on sites with the highest grid scores is ~9X higher.
⚡️ This data highlights the importance of reliable, stable supply of power in supporting commercial enterprises and ultimately mini-grid economic viability. Though mini-grids are often more reliable than the main grid, operators cannot be complacent in maintaining their quality of service.
➡ Read more about taking the electric brake off African enterprise: https://bit.ly/3cgRlrP
Check back for regular updates from CrossBoundary’s Mini-Grid Innovation Lab, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, as we test and iterate on mini-grid innovations designed to close the gap on the 618 million Africans who do not have power.
#minigrids #energyaccess #renewableenergy