Developments and commentary in and around the ESG investment space.

Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered has launched a new proposition which makes the sustainability of supply chains look clearer and more transparent.

The global lender has designed a new suite of trade-finance products and services - available in its territories in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas - to help companies improve their supply chain resilence and provide more information to their clients so that they can meet their ESG-related objectives.

The bank aims to work with customers and partners to finance goods which meet agreed standards: support suppliers who meet acceptable ESG thresholds on gender equality, conduct responsible sourcing and water use; and generally put more focus on trade financing for sustainable industries such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, water management and clean transport.

“These products will help global supply chain activities, estimated at $19 trillion by the World Trade Organisation, become more sustainable," the bank said.

As a bank with a large presence in commodities-rich emerging market economies, bringing more transparency to this largely opaque world makes sense.

The bank has put the Loan Market Association’s sustainability-linked “loan principles” at the heart of the new offering, which should improve disclosure, reporting, and definition of use rules, it said. It will initially focus on supply chain finance, invoice financing, receivables services, bonds and guarantees, and letters of credit.

“Trade finance has an enormous opportunity to help make global supply chain activities more sustainable by offering companies the products and solutions they need to achieve their sustainability agenda,” Simon Cooper, CEO for Europe and the Americas, said.