When it comes to sustainability, there’s a lot banks and other financial institutions can learn from other industries. Consumers are now starting to apply more scrutiny around the sustainability of their everyday choices, from food and fashion to transportation, housing and their financial transactions. The consumer demand for organic food is growing steadily, enabled by...
18 Apr 2024
Against a backdrop of strong indicative interest from retail investors, new opportunities are beginning to emerge. Investing in nature is still a nascent industry and this is even more so the case when we consider retail investments or specifically ocean conservation. Despite the strong indicative interest from retail investors in nature-related solutions, there is currently...
17 Apr 2024
Regular air travellers will understand the fixation many industry observers have with aircraft landings. An ideal ‘soft landing’ is viewed as a testament to pilot skill, while a hard touchdown a sign of poor form. The reality, as always, is more complex with other factors including winds playing a key role. The analogy is applied...
11 Apr 2024
Our Sustainable Finance assets have grown 31 per cent year on year, valuing our Sustainable Finance portfolio at USD17.6bn. As the 2030 deadline to deliver on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaches, the world still faces a significant funding shortfall. The annual financing deficit across all SDG categories has expanded to USD4 trillion,...
05 Apr 2024
It’s important to prioritise the investment of your most valuable commodity – your time. From a very young age, we are taught that if you want to get better at something, then you need to expend time and effort to learn the necessary skills. We are also taught that you should focus on areas that...
04 Apr 2024
Critical infrastructure gaps coupled with the pursuit of net zero and adoption of AI will unlock ample opportunity across Real Assets. Large capital deployments across renewable energy, data centres, and the monetisation of non-core infrastructure have tremendous implications for Real Assets over the short- and long-term. Standard Chartered expects all three megatrends to provide compelling...
01 Apr 2024
Bangladesh’s maiden sustainability-linked bond issuance is a rallying call for corporates and investors in the debt and capital equity markets, especially with regards to sustainability-linked products. The green bond was issued amid challenging market conditions and structured to incentivise both issuers and investors. As such, it demonstrates the potential value of such activity in unlocking...
28 Mar 2024
Former President Donald Trump is poised for a face-off with President Joe Biden in November’s US presidential elections. Despite a storm of legal challenges, Trump’s campaign juggernaut rolls on, with polls suggesting a lead over Biden. Trump’s decision to run again puts him among a small group of ex-presidents who have subsequently run for office....
27 Mar 2024
My most recent TV interview, which was posted online with the title “China market not looking so bad”, generated a surprising number of responses. There were a number of “sceptical comments”, which really show how poor the sentiment is for Chinese assets. However, in equity markets, price and volume are hard statistics. In fact, the...
21 Mar 2024
Background Leading hotel operator, Minor International (MINT), is committed to becoming a net zero carbon organisation by 2050. MINT’s sustainability practices include the adoption of a 4R approach (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replace). In accordance with these practices, MINT is refinancing existing debt with an innovative financing structure that aligns with MINT’s sustainability strategy. MINT is...
15 Mar 2024
Many investors have dubbed the next 10 years as ‘India’s decade’. The country’s projected GDP in 2024 is 7 per cent. With rising disposable income of 15 per cent, and a 1.43 billion population according to UN estimates, India may offer enviable long-term opportunities for decades to come. Renewable energy is one of the sectors tipped...
15 Mar 2024
Former President Donald Trump has won the Republican party nomination to take on President Joe Biden in the US presidential election in November after emphatic wins in the primary elections. It will be the first US presidential election rematch in almost 70 years. Opinion polls show Trump is ahead of Biden in the presidential race...
14 Mar 2024
In a first for the travel and tourism sector in Thailand, renowned accommodation and lifestyle leader, Minor International, has committed to lowering emissions and conserving precious water resources as part of an innovative sustainability-linked financing deal. Travel and tourism delivers many benefits, creating jobs, strengthening economies, and reducing poverty and inequality. Yet, these benefits often...
11 Mar 2024
The shifting regulatory environment is impacting cash management and payments functions, presenting treasury teams with new avenues for liquidity optimisation, more effective capital deployment across different markets, and more agile operations. The global payments and liquidity management space has undergone immense change in recent years, driven by technological advancement and evolving business models. As digital...
09 Mar 2024
Blockchain brings about limitless possibilities, but what are its practical applications for corporate treasurers that can turn challenges in global financial management into scalable opportunities? While the speed and cost for cross-border payment have improved dramatically for consumers over the past few years, corporate treasurers still grapple with manual, slow, and often costly processes. With...
09 Mar 2024
Despite the uncertainty about what lies ahead for global trade, there are still reasons for optimism about its resilience and its enduring role as a catalyst for positive change, and these are encapsulated in the current trends that are shaping the landscape. As 2024 begins, the global economy is confronting what is projected to be...
09 Mar 2024
A quick guide outlining what business leaders and corporates need to know to understand and effectively leverage the new advances in tokenisation. Tokenisation, the process of digitally representing assets or items of value through a smart contract on a blockchain, is now rapidly maturing, and robust and scalable solutions are on the horizon. In this...
08 Mar 2024
We’re proud to support women-owned businesses like Bdazzaled as part of our commitment to supplier diversity. And the benefits go both ways. Originally approached by Standard Chartered to help with product marketing and events, Bdazzaled owner and CEO Wanjiru Mugugu says the relationship has become so much more than just providing a service. As well...
08 Mar 2024
A friend of mine is a keen surfer. He often reminds me that catching the right wave, and riding it successfully, can mean the difference between a successful day out on the surf and one spent treading water near the shore. As is often the case, though, it takes time to develop the judgment and...
07 Mar 2024
China’s equity markets have been volatile this year. The Shanghai Composite Index started the year with a wobble, down as much as 9 per cent at one point as investors grew increasingly pessimistic on the outlook of China. Since February, however, a series of measures has sparked hopes that the pain threshold for policymakers has...
29 Feb 2024
For decades, countries worldwide — and particularly in Asia — have experienced huge rewards from globalisation. Trade has boosted economies and livelihoods, helping to pull millions out of poverty. However, that trajectory may be at risk. The 2023 Hinrich-IMD Sustainable Trade Index notes signs of what it calls “slowbalisation”, linked to heightened geopolitical tensions, increasingly protectionist trade...
28 Feb 2024