Sector developments and company hires

Sustainable finance strategy unveiled
The European Commission has adopted a number of measures in connection with sustainable finance. First, a new Sustainable Finance Strategy sets out several initiatives to tackle climate change, as well as increase investment in the EU's transition towards a sustainable economy.

The strategy includes six sets of actions: extend the sustainable finance toolbox to facilitate access to transition finance; improve the inclusiveness of SMEs, and consumers, by giving them the right tools and incentives to access transition finance; enhance the resilience of the economic and financial system to sustainability risks; increase the contribution of the financial sector to sustainability; ensure the integrity of the EU financial system and monitor its orderly transition to sustainability; and develop international sustainable finance initiatives and standards, and support EU partner countries. The Commission will report on the strategy's implementation by end-2023 and actively support Member States in their efforts on sustainable finance.

The second sustainable finance measure adopted by the Commission is proposed regulation on a voluntary European Green Bond Standard (EUGBS), which aims to set a ‘gold standard' for how companies and public authorities can use green bonds to raise funds on capital markets to finance ambitious investments, while meeting tough sustainability requirements. There are four key requirements under the proposed framework: the funds raised by the bond should be allocated fully to projects aligned with the EU Taxonomy; there must be full transparency on how bond proceeds are allocated through detailed reporting requirements; all EU green bonds must be checked by an external reviewer to ensure compliance with the regulation and that funded projects are aligned with the Taxonomy; and external reviewers providing services to issuers of EU green bonds must be registered with and supervised by ESMA.

Finally, the Commission has adopted a Delegated Act on the information to be disclosed by financial and non-financial companies about how sustainable their activities are, based on Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy. The Act will be transmitted for scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council for a period of four months, extendable once by two months.

In other news…

North America
Hiscox ILS has appointed Vincent Prabis managing principal, responsible for spearheading the company’s ILS evolution. He will also become a member of the Hiscox Re & ILS executive team, reporting to Kathleen Reardon, ceo of Hiscox Re & ILS. Prior to joining Hiscox, Prabis served as head of ILS strategies at SCOR Investment Partners, where he oversaw the strategic direction of a well-diversified ILS business.