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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s final guidance on a principles-based approach to ensuring financial institutions appropriately manage climate-related financial risk comes as a growing cohort of nations signal intentions to introduce mandatory regimes. Some observers compliment the Australian approach while others fear it could exacerbate jurisdictional divergence.
Like the Australian corporate debt market as a whole, the local sustainable debt space has progressed in leaps and bounds over recent years but still has a mountain to climb. The emergence of sustainability-linked instruments has opened the sustainable-debt door to a new range of borrowers, while investors are increasingly integrating sustainability principles in their credit processes. Participants at a roundtable convened by KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank in November discuss their sustainability journeys and how they are preparing for the climb ahead.
Having celebrated his 30th anniversary with Westpac Banking Corporation in 2021, chief economist Bill Evans is in a unique position to view the challenges facing markets and economies thanks to his deep understanding of how they have responded to comparable events in the past. Evans speaks to KangaNews about the economic outlook, the wealth trade-off between wage earners and asset owners, the risk of deglobalisation and how sustainability is factoring in to his forecasting.
Financial markets are at the heart of era-defining changes happening in today’s world. How adequately the Australian market rises to the challenge will help define its own future and that of the whole economy. Westpac Institutional Bank leaders speak to KangaNews about the state of the local debt market, the task of integrating sustainability within it and the changing context in which it operates.