SWAN’s Way in Mauritius: Historic Insurance Provider Delivers Modern Day Financial Services

From humble beginnings, SWAN has matured to become a leading non-banking financial services provider in Mauritius.

Over its 165-year history, the Indian Ocean-based insurance company has partnered with global entities and served generations of Mauritians. It has consistently expanded its array of services designed to ensure full financial security for its clients.

Given its drive to innovate, the company is continuously adjusting itself to meet new expectations. Comprehensive education plans and retirement plans were launched almost half a century ago. Housing and multipurpose loans are also available to provide clients with the helping hand they need to actualise their dreams.

By putting people at the centre of its activities, SWAN aims at providing its policyholders with the peace of mind they deserve. Its endeavour stems from the strong belief that it is only when people are protected and their future is provided for that they can make real progress towards a more prosperous life. This philosophy, referred to as the Pyramid of Prosperity, rallies all employees around the same objective.

Over the years, Swan Wealth Managers Ltd — SWAN’s investment management arm — has become a benchmark in asset and fund management. It provides advisory services to the largest companies and institutions in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean region. With AUM of $1.5bn, Swan Wealth is one of the largest local asset and wealth managers. It designs investment products to meet the needs of seasoned and new investors, taking full advantage of its affiliation with global financial institutions such as BlackRock, Schroders, JP Morgan, and Euroclear.

In addition to its investment management activities, Swan Wealth Managers is a licensed CIS (Collective Investment Schemes) Manager. It currently has three CIS under the Swan Global Funds umbrella: the Foreign Equity Fund, the Emerging Markets Equity Fund, and the Swan Income Fund, launched in 2008, 2018, and 2019 respectively.

Swan Wealth Managers serves the retail and High Net Worth segments as well as large corporate and institutional investors. Thanks to its expertise and innovative products, it can craft tailor-made solutions and strategies taking into consideration different investment profiles.

The panoply of mutual and exchange traded funds, equities, fixed income and other structured solutions provide possibilities for various investment objectives and risk profiles. The staff have the experience, expertise, insights and in-depth understanding of financial markets to create bespoke solutions, taking into consideration clients' aspirations and market conditions.

Through Swan Wealth Managers, clients have access to more than 400 international fund houses across the globe, covering themes, geographies and styles.

With a solid track record, SWAN’s wealth and asset management arm has proven itself well-versed in the intricacies of risk management. This forms an essential component of the job. On the back of this ingrained flair for risk management, Swan Wealth Managers has devised multi-asset strategies incorporating equities, fixed income and alternative investments to track high returns — and effectively mitigate risk. SWAN’s primary objective is to ensure that its clients progress towards prosperity throughout their journey.

Swan Securities Ltd, the investment dealing arm of SWAN, was established in 1989, the year the Stock Exchange of Mauritius was launched. Over the past three decades, the company has garnered deep experience and is now one of the most prominent investment dealers on the island. Quality research, regular roadshows and high-level service delivery to local and foreign institutional clients have earned it a solid reputation in the sector. With its skilled staff, Swan Securities Ltd provides its clients with professional advice and a wide range of trading and research services.

Besides its impressive potential in terms of product development, SWAN has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation with the aim of enhancing client experience. In 2018, the first version of mySWAN, a mobile app, was unveiled. It has consistently evolved and has now reached version 3.0, enabling policy subscription and claims management on a portfolio of five covers.

Further improvements will be brought to the organisation’s digital ecosystem over coming months.

Nitish Benimadhu At the Helm: a CIO whose Investment Strategy holds the Organisation on its Course

[caption id="attachment_18699" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Chief Investment Officer: Nitish Benimadhu[/caption]

Chief investment officer Nitish Benimadhu heads the non-insurance cluster of the SWAN group (capital markets) as well as the loans and property segments.

He joined the group in 2005, has consistently proven his worth — and shown the value of the experience he has accumulated, by sharing it.

This seasoned professional has become recognised by his peers and clients for the top-notch advice and insights he provides on asset management, investments and insurance matters. He is a board director of several Swan subsidiaries and a member of the SWAN Investment Committee and Risk Committee.

The CIO is involved in the International Steering Committee and oversees the company’s investment strategy in Mauritius and abroad — including the group’s ambitious initiatives it hopes to deploy on the African continent.

Nitish Benimadhu holds directorship positions in some leading organisations and companies. He is the chair of the Central Depository & Settlement Company and vice-chair of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius.

He also serves on the board of directors of Constance Hotels Services, Moka City Ltd and Oficea Company, among others. Nitish Benimadhu is regularly invited to give lectures on economics and finance at the University of Mauritius.

He holds an honours degree in Economics and a Masters of Arts in Economics from Canada’s University of Ottawa.


Multiply Marketing Consultancy with Samia Bouazza at the Helm: Always Prepared, Armed with the Latest Tech, Determined to Be the Best

“Abu Dhabi residents. International specialists. Critical thinkers. Problem solvers. Marketing connoisseurs. Trained to get straight to your point.”

[caption id="attachment_18703" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Founder & Managing Director: Samia Bouazza[/caption]

Straight to the point, indeed. With these words, Multiply Marketing Consultancy encapsulates the core of what it does, and where it does it. The Abu Dhabi-based multicultural and multi-discipline agency has offices across the world — in France, Lebanon, Egypt, and South East Asia, in addition to partnerships in the USA and the UK.

Teams of marketing, creative, social, digital, web, research, and OOH media professionals work in unison to transform the way the world sees their clients.

Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s purpose in a word is “empower”:

Empowering clients to engage on an emotional level with their consumers

Empowering brands to be human-centric through their communications

Empowering employees to always “up their game” — with a culture that fosters entrepreneurship and values learning.

Global Partnerships

In line with ambitious growth strategies, Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s management has been investing in organic expansions, extending the company’s reach to international markets. The data-centric agency has also been creating tie-ups with leading companies worldwide that are at the forefront of the new digital age. The consultancy is particularly focused on data analytics, and in acquiring or creating solutions. With this expanding partnership network, Multiply Marketing Consultancy offers clients expertise and services that span the spectrum.

"To initiate an authentic connection between brands and consumers, Multiply Marketing Consultancy adopts a brand story-telling strategy."

Services That Enrich Human Experiences

The consultancy works on developing brands, assets, systems, experiences and initiatives based on strategic insights and creativity. The aim is ultimately to foster growth and distinction for their clients.

Using database marketing to generate personalised communications, and market insights to ensure all messaging resonates with a specific target audience, the firm enables brands to connect, engage and inspire. The company’s roster of services is expansive, covering clients’ communication and marketing needs.

Marketing & PR

For those in the industry, understanding the brand and its equity is the key to going forward. Brand positioning, defining the target and determining the best suited communication channels are the crucial starting points. This allows the agency to develop a holistic communication plan and triangulate on ideas, solutions, and strategies. Necessary PR messaging and activations are based on lead nurturing and the brand’s core needs and aims. Multiply Marketing Consultancy also uses the latest martech tools to create new ways for consumers to experience a brand.

Digital Media

The agency facilitates clientele presence in the digital realm by identifying challenges and providing meaningful insights and digital solutions that meet business goals and deliver micro-moments. The aim is to design a digital plan and vision for each brand, with focused deliverables, clear road-mapping, and the latest digital technologies on-hand. End consumers gain the opportunity to experience a brand through AR, VR and immersive technology.

OOH Media & Media Buying

Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s outdoor media assets extend across Abu Dhabi, allowing the company to provide clients with exclusive targeting opportunities. The media department boasts a fine track record in media planning and buying for private and government clients.

Branding & Design

To initiate an authentic connection between brands and consumers, Multiply Marketing Consultancy adopts a brand story-telling strategy. Its experienced design team has been bringing brands to life for almost two decades, using trend-setting designs to engage with target audiences across a variety of media and channels.

Marketing Research

The agency’s objective is to connect brands with consumers. To understand consumer needs and emotions, the consultancy’s research department uses everything from microdata and market insights to statistical techniques, churn rates, and the latest practices and methods of neuromarketing. The company then develops the optimal strategy to grab consumers’ attention, in addition to implementing the ideal methods to entice them into engaging with the brand.

Social Media

Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s social media team ensures clients aren’t just present in the virtual realm, they are prominent. Audiences are targeted across the most crucial touch points with content that drives engagement while meeting clients’ business goals. The team handles social media strategy, social listening, social media management, content curation and more.

Events

Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s expertise in event management goes back to the days of the first cityscape in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, adding numerous events and exhibitions to the company name over the years. The agency supports clients with continuously innovative and creative solutions and services such as MR and Experiential Marketing, ensuring events don’t just go the extra mile, but beyond all expectations.

Neuromarketing

Multiply Marketing Consultancy incorporates neuromarketing techniques to study consumers' unconscious sensorimotor, cognitive and emotional responses to various stimuli. Everything from EEG and eye-tracking to emotion-analysing tools and software is used to test packaging, content, design, videos, websites and all other advertisements. In effect, this is marketing to the brain itself to instigate the utmost impact.

With a team of neuromarketers, behavioral analysts and other multidisciplinary researchers on board, Multiply Marketing Consultancy stays up-to-speed on consumer psychological and behavioral research, guaranteeing data and science help guide strategy.

Standout & Award-Winning Work

Over the years, Multiply Marketing Consultancy has garnered attention and accolades from peers in the industry and beyond. The recognition received is always used as the next starting point, which in itself ensures the company is continuously pushing the envelope and the boundaries of innovation and creativity.

Some of the consultancy’s standout work includes rebranding and creative execution for ADIO, and the rebranding of Al Ain Zoo, a 50-year-old institution, to name just a couple.

The Disgraceful Art Show, an award-winning initiative #FoodNotTrash was inspired by The Year of Giving, which was declared by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates. The initiative’s aim was to raise awareness about food waste, and to educate the public on its implications, encouraging them to take action and make a difference.

The Way Forward

Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s two decades of experience and knowledge servicing local clients, combined with its access to the latest design trends, martech and international standards, has been a key driver in successfully delivering client communication objectives. The company’s partnerships and acquisitions include New York-based Yieldmo, one of the fastest growing digital marketing companies in North America. The company is always primed and ready to meet any challenge, and solve any communication need.

Founder, MD, Champion of Corporate Culture: Samia is the Leader for All Reasons

As founder and managing director of Multiply Marketing Consultancy, Samia Bouazza brings a track record of delivering intelligent marketing, brand-positioning solutions, and strategies to her clients.

Under her leadership, Multiply Marketing Consultancy has grown from a local boutique agency into an award-winning global communication and research firm specialising in strategic marketing, branding, creative campaigns, social and digital media, and market research.
A business leader and active board member, Bouazza has been focused on accelerating the digitalisation of companies and processes to ensure they are optimised, scalable, efficient and lean. This is most evident in her ambition for Multiply Marketing Consultancy.

She and her team have decided on a mandate to invest in disruptive marketing technologies that complement the firm’s existing services and ensure a constant edge in the market. Bouazza recently announced Multiply Marketing Consultancy’s latest investment in Yieldmo, one of the fastest-growing martech (marketing technology) companies in North America. This adds to the company’s global network of investments and partnerships, and its recent expansion into new digital industries in the US and UK. Samia Bouazza’s plans for her consultancy’s growth have also been organic, with the company retaining some of the region’s largest names in real estate and consumer goods.

Multiply’s corporate culture is of the highest importance to Bouazza. She values intellectual growth, an attribute she ensures is valued and shared throughout the organisation. Each person — herself included — dedicates 16 percent of their working week to learning and development. She is personally involved in the agency’s publications on leadership, character-building and optimising cognitive performance.

Samia Bouazza is also an advocate for making time to give back to society, making sure to pinpoint and support a social cause every year. In her most recent initiative, she worked with her multi-disciplinary team to create a programme that supports a cause close to her heart — the character development of young women. She was hands-on in delivering the programme to groups in Lebanon and the UAE.

Previously, her team produced #FoodNotTrash, an award-winning digital campaign that raised awareness of food waste, and cemented the firm’s reputation as a premier digital communication group. Bouazza also serves on the board of MEPRA, Viola Communications, as well as on one of the Life Bioscience’s programmes and a private Swiss clinic for longevity.


A New Era for Kuwait International Bank: Architecting the Future of Technology-based Banking

[caption id="attachment_16016" align="alignright" width="300"] Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Raed Jawad Bukhamseen[/caption]

Digital renaissance in the global banking sector was well underway prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, most retail banks had embarked upon some form of transformation journey to provide more efficient banking services.

However, lockdowns forced banks to drastically accelerate the pace of change. Within weeks – and sometimes days – they had to act fast and become creative. The banks needed to find new ways to handle processes remotely, and harness digital tools to compensate for branch, office and call centre closures. Suddenly, the impossible became possible and digital was the New Normal. As lockdowns extended, the very nature of the customer-bank relationship changed. The way that banks do business changed.

A Future Reimagined

As the economic impact began to emerge, Kuwait International Bank (KIB) leveraged innovative strategies and updated its business model to stay ahead of the curve. The bank completed a months-long exercise to develop a comprehensive and ambitious plan for radical digital transformation. Aggressive targets were set as KIB’s transformation quickly went from being a good strategy to a critical method of delivering undisrupted services. This digitally-focused shift involved the rolling out a complete new suite of technological innovations and solutions. Internal processes were streamlined to adapt to the digital change, eventually resulting a more sophisticated, dynamic, convenient and user-friendly banking experience.

Turning a Threat Into an Impetus for Innovation and Rapid Transformation

To confront the challenges and emerging risks posed by coronavirus, KIB made it a priority to revamp its core digital infrastructure. The move towards digital made it possible to offer a safe, secure, and friendly banking experience – for the time of the pandemic and beyond. It became clear that the paradigm shift towards digital banking more important than ever before.

Since COVID-19 fundamentally altered the landscape, the transformation strategies KIB undertook went beyond changing the way work is done. Over the past eight months, the bank has introduced a suite of services geared towards delivering improved functionality, greater convenience and an elevated banking experience in line with the latest technologies of the worldwide financial sector. This includes the addition of live chat on the website, new application services on digital channels, new appointment booking systems, as well as increased limits on digital transactions and services.

Deeper customer engagement with Kuwait International Bank

One of KIB’s core values is delivery of the highest standards of banking experience. Branches introduced casual consultation points, via a ‘device desk’, to enable easy access to general information and speedy assistance through allocated tablets and laptops. Private consultations with staff will take place within bespoke rooms for a more one-on-one feel. The Bank opted for core technology transformations across every touch point and customer interaction, from the branches to mobile app and online banking platform to the contact centre. To support its digital transformation strategy, the bank introduced a major upgrade to its mobile banking application and launched a completely revamped website. In addition to the acceleration of its digital trends, a key milestone for KIB was the launch of a new branch model, equipped with advanced concepts and unique designs, including a range of digital devices and interactive screens tailored to suit a more sophisticated and tech-savvy generation with dynamic needs and ever-higher expectations. Amongst newly introduced features, staff roam the open-plan branches with iPads to answer client questions. A mobile app feature allows digital registration with the Kuwait Clearing Company to receive direct-deposit dividends in their accounts instead of having to pick up a cheque in person. The improved functionality of the bank’s digital tools will enable KIB to serve customers better and meet their ever-changing needs in line with the latest technologies.

Amidst the fundamental shifts in the financial services industry, Kuwait International Bank remains committed to exploring new services and solutions across all channels and touchpoints, both physical and digital, to better serve customers. The Bank is looking to launch a wide-ranging suite of new services in coming months, living up to its claim to be a “Bank for life”.


Trojan Holding: One of the Fastest-growing Construction Firms in the UAE

Since its creation in 2012, Trojan Holding LLC has grown to become one of the top five construction groups in the region, with a firm commitment to quality work and timely delivery.

The Abu Dhabi-based company has created a cohesive construction entity with a solid financial standing and competitive edge. Employing over 25,000 personnel across eight subsidiaries, the holding company delivers high quality, on schedule turnkey solutions, with a one-stop-shop service and a huge technical team capable of working on every aspect of a building, no matter the size or complexity. And as the company grows and expands its business, it remains dedicated to maintaining, training and growing a diverse, multi-national workforce, in addition to adhering to the highest standards of health and safety and environmental regulations.

[caption id="attachment_18708" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Yas Waters Edge[/caption]

Subsidiaries

Trojan Holding companies are currently involved in the construction of high-rise towers, educational facilities, medical facilities, luxury resorts, business hotels, a mass housing development (complete city), government buildings and industrial projects in the UAE and across international markets. The subsidiaries work individually and in tandem to deliver the utmost quality in all projects they undertake.

Trojan General Contracting

Since its launch in 2009, Trojan General Contracting has executed a diverse and far-reaching portfolio of major construction projects in all sectors of real estate and infrastructure. Today, the company encompasses an array of plants and state-of-the-art equipment, as well as a team of more than 5,200 experts and labourers.

National Projects & Construction

Established in 2003, National Projects & Construction (NPC) provides unsurpassed contracting services to property developers in the UAE, with a variety of projects to its name ranging from commercial spaces to personal villas. Today, NPC is a main contractor with operations spanning building and infrastructure construction, as well as mechanical and electrical services.

[caption id="attachment_18709" align="alignright" width="225"] The Palm Tower[/caption]

Royal Advance

Royal Advance was established as an independent MEP Contractor to carry out the MEP packages for the group. With a workforce of over 3,000 labourers and professional engineers, Royal Advance has successfully executed MEP works for numerous projects such as Highland Resort Villas, Danet Mall, Holiday Inn, and more.

Reem Emirates Aluminum

Since its formation in 2006, Reem Emirates Aluminum has been contributing to the UAE’s industrial sector through the provision of sustainable façade solutions, continuously delivering the highest levels of quality in products and services.

Hitech Concrete Products

As a leader in the field of Precast Concrete Products, masonry blocks and the paving stones industry in the United Arab Emirates, Hitech Concrete Products offers a full product and service package with the ability to design, detail, manufacture and install a diverse range of precast concrete needs.

Al Maha Modular Industries

Reputed as one of the most reliable construction companies in the UAE, Al Maha Modular Industries specialises in fast and accurate solutions for all kinds of industrial constructions of pre-engineered and hot-rolled steel, such as warehouses, factories, workshops, showrooms, cold stores, offices, staff/labour accommodations, bus stations, metro stations and residential buildings.

Phoenix Timber

Phoenix was founded to provide creative and cost-effective design and construction, with exceptional and customised solutions delivered from their wood manufacturing facilities to clients with the help of a team of highly qualified and passionate professionals.

Reem Readymix

Reem Readymix is a leading supplier of all types of ready-mix concrete and cement-based plastering materials. Using the latest technology and equipment, the company’s expert personnel provides concrete-related services, from production to final product placing.

Iconic Developments

Trojan’s extensive in-house expertise and commitment to quality and timely delivery have ensured the company could secure some of the most iconic developments both regionally and globally. Examples include Nation Towers in Abu Dhabi, 17 Icon Bay at Dubai Creek Harbour by Emaar, Waters Edge by Aldar, and Madinat Al Arab infrastructure works for Nakheel. Trojan has additionally landed several hospitality projects, including Rove La Mer in Dubai, and The Local Hotel in Chechnya, Russia. Trojan has also been awarded projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as the Security Forces Medical Center for the Ministry of Interior and the new headquarters building for SABIC.

Trojan Young Engineers: A Trojan Holding Initiative

Trojan Holding is a big supporter of Abu Dhabi’s 2030 Vision through direct contribution to the emirate’s social and human development and the creation of a sustainable, knowledge-based nation. Trojan Young Engineers (TYE) is a CSR initiative launched by the firm to host engineering students from various universities to spend one full day with Trojan’s inhouse engineers. Students are encouraged to view the day-to-day activities of a construction firm, thus gaining insight into management and construction sites and come to know how their careers will progress once they’ve completed university. Trojan Holding’s Managing Director, Eng Hamad Salem Al Ameri has been running the programme-rich initiative as part of his personal mission to give back to the community and provide a platform for students to step into the practical world and become aware of the skills of international and local engineers. The initiative completed its fourth cycle this year, going digital to accommodate the circumstances of 2020.

Looking Ahead

Trojan plans to retain its dominant position in hospitality, housing and high-rise projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the company is working hard to establish a presence in Europe, in addition to implementing expansion plans into neighbouring GCC countries. Trojan is also planning to diversify into such sectors as oil, gas, and energy, as well as enhancing its portfolio with new projects in the social infrastructure sector.

In its current field of construction and infrastructure, technology is a big driver at the present time, with the UAE being one of the most advanced countries in terms of adopting new technologies and robotics. Trojan, as an industry leader, has embraced new technologies and adapted them across the board, firm in its belief that there is great potential for technology to play a bigger role across the construction sector, including design, planning, and management, with the greatest potential found in the field of robotics. In addition to technology, Trojan always seeks to promote sustainability within its communities and focuses on the protection of the environment and the conservation of resources.

As a full-service turnkey contracting company, Trojan provides clients with the ability to execute virtually any type of construction project, and the best evidence of its success is the long list of repeat clients who invite Trojan to work with them. There is no better recommendation.


ESG in Company DNA Makes Responsible Investment as Obvious as ABC for Invesco

For more than 30 years, Invesco has demonstrated its commitment to responsible investing by actively encouraging ESG practices across every area of its business.

It applies ESG concepts to the products it offers, its investment processes, and its corporate behavior. Invesco’s approach focuses on integrating ESG risk and opportunity factors into investment decisions, differentiated by asset classes and decentralised by local investment centres. This integration extends to engagement and active ownership.

[caption id="attachment_18714" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Source: 2020 Assessment Report for Invesco Ltd., PRI. *Direct and Active Ownership Modules.[/caption]

Invesco’s support for responsible investment comprises the following elements:

Diverse Commitments to ESG

Due to Invesco's diversity, its investment strategies and styles vary in their approach to implementation. This is underpinned by external research and a global team of experts with the capacity to manage ESG solutions depending on client need.

Engaged Investors

Invesco sees engagement as an opportunity for continual improvement. Dialogue with investment companies is a core part of its investment process and one of the most powerful mechanisms for mitigating risk, enhancing return potential and having a positive impact on society and the environment.

“We have taken a lead investor role with one company in 2020 as part of Climate Action 100+ and are involved in several collaborative engagements,” says Glen K Yelton, head of Invesco ESG client strategies for North America.

Proxy Voting

Invesco’s patented proxy voting portal facilitates investment-led voting decisions. This proprietary tool encourages knowledge collaboration, leverages multiple sources of research and enables investors to focus on long-term shareholder value.

Global Commitment to ESG Investing

ESG is a strategic competitive differentiator that helps Invesco clients to get more out of life. “We ensure that we’re doing what’s right for our clients,” says Yelton, “as well as our shareholders, employees and the communities in which we operate.”
The depth of the innovative strategies provides opportunities to deliver sustainable, long-term performance to clients.

Invesco globally formalised its commitment in 2013 when it became a signatory of the UN-sponsored Principles for Responsi

"As an investor in global equities, corporate and sovereign fixed income, real assets and multi-asset strategies, Invesco recognises the differences between asset classes and geographies, and applies ESG principles accordingly."ble Investment (PRI). “We were proud to be awarded an A+ rating in 2020 for our overall approach to responsible investment for the fourth consecutive year,” Yelton says.

The PRI carries out the annual assessment based on how a signatory has progressed year-on-year and relative to peers. The rating demonstrates the firm’s efforts in terms of ESG integration, active ownership, investor collaboration and transparency.

As an investor in global equities, corporate and sovereign fixed income, real assets and multi-asset strategies, Invesco recognises the differences between asset classes and geographies, and applies ESG principles accordingly.

Teams incorporating ESG into their investment process consider it as part of the evaluation of ideas, company dialogue and portfolio monitoring. Assessment of ESG aspects is incorporated into the wider investment process as part of a holistic consideration of risk and opportunity. ESG aspects are considered along with other economic drivers when evaluating the attractiveness of an investment.

“Our fund managers have absolute discretion in taking a view on any given ESG risk or opportunity,” says Yelton. “The core aspects to our ESG philosophy include materiality, ESG momentum and engagement.”
Materiality refers to consideration of ESG issues on a risk-adjusted basis and in an economic context. ESG aspects are not seen as constraints, aside from certain restrictions driven by legal obligations in certain territories — such as Invesco’s non-investment policy in controversial weapons in EMEA.

The concept of ESG momentum, or improving ESG performance over time, is a constant focus. Companies that improve their ESG practices tend to enjoy favorable financial performance in the longer term.

Dialogue with portfolio companies is a core part of the investment process at Invesco’s fundamental teams. “We often participate in board-level dialogue and are instrumental in giving shareholder views on management, corporate strategy, transparency, and capital allocation as well as wider ESG aspects,” says Yelton.

“The starting point for our company level ESG research is the analysts and portfolio managers, who will look at a variety of factors. These will differ per asset class, sector, geography and company and will typically be one component of an overall investment view.”

Should the portfolio managers and analysts wish for more detailed ESG information, Invesco’s global team can provide proprietary analysis. Crucially, while there is global centralised support, decisions are ultimately made by investment managers and analysts — the experts who best know their asset classes and sectors.

ESG investing is key to a sustainable future, driving a holistic perspective on the investment industry’s role in creating value. “Our commitment goes far beyond deliver elements of ESG at a functional level,” says Yelton, “it goes to the heart of being a trusted partner.”

Diversity of thought means the firm’s ESG implementation is not generic. The global ESG team sets standards and provides specialist insights on research, engagement, voting, integration, tools, client and product solutions. Invesco’s investment officers and teams leverage this to tailor ESG approaches relevant to asset classes and investment styles.

Invesco ESGintel

Invesco ESGintel is a proprietary tool built by the global ESG research team in collaboration with the Technology Strategy Innovation and Planning (SIP) team, providing insights, metrics, data points and direction of change. ESGintel provides users with an internal rating, a rating trend, and a rank in GICS sectors.

A sector-materiality focus to select indicators ensures a targeted focus on the most vital issues for sustainable value-creation and risk management. This provides a holistic view on how a company’s value chain is impacted in different ways by various ESG topics.

These data points are then classified by sector or regional relative performance at the indicator level. Machine learning algorithms and extrapolations ensure broad coverage in the absence of coverage data, using a process by which statistical proxies are created in place of missing data and an estimated ESG score is assigned to an indicator. Ratings on a scale of one to five are calculated at the overall company, topic and indicator levels to facilitate a focus on higher risk company-specific issues. In addition to the individual rating, the momentum highlights the changes to the rating over time.

ESGintel has been developed with a focus on materiality, allowing Invesco to compare companies on the most important ESG indicators. Invesco ESGintel is housed in a proprietary platform available to Invesco employees.


Pavilion Global Markets: Global Recognition in Two Niche Services, Transition Management and Global Portfolio Strategy

Pavilion Global Markets Ltd was founded in Canada more than 50 years ago as an institutional, agency-only broker-dealer.

For over half a century, Pavilion Global Markets (PGM) has provided expertise in execution and advice to institutional clients worldwide. It has continually evolved to meet the needs of its client base. Most recently, it has added a temporary asset management service to complement its core services.

[gallery link="file" size="medium" ids="20961,18718,18719"]

“As a private, employee-owned firm, we are committed to serving our clients first,” says CEO Patrick Belland, “and we focus on providing expertise in a few select services.”

The company remains true to this mission, focusing on global securities execution, transition management and global portfolio strategy. “We serve over 200 institutional clients worldwide,” says Belland, “with a continued concentration in these core value-add offerings.”

PGM prides itself in providing a comprehensive offering. “We emphasise excellence in client service,” says Mario Choueiri, Head, Global Transition Management. “By working with our clients from the initial stage of global portfolio advice through to implementation, we provide a confidential experience helping clients to meet their goals.” Mario Choueiri has been with PGM for over 15 years, and has guided the firm’s expansion into the US.

PGM has been providing transition management services for over two decades, with the expansion into the US market now in its seventh year. PGM focuses on rigorous project management, coupled with unparalleled client communication. The success of the business has been driven by commitment and dedication to client goals. “We are free of the most notable conflicts that challenge providers of these services,” Choueiri says, “and we always provide full transparency on our pricing and trade execution.”

Aidan Garrib, Head, Global Macro Strategy and Research for PGM, adds: “The opportunity to provide a differentiated global portfolio strategy service motivated our team to provide custom-work above and beyond that of most institutions. Client investment needs have become broader and more complex, driving the need for deeper, and truly global, advice. Those needs vary widely and we work to provide relevant and meaningful research.”

“By combining our services and working together, we are able to meet the demands of our clients and help them to meet their investment objectives and implementation needs.”

Patrick Belland again: “Under the leadership of Mario Choueiri and Aidan Garrib, we will continue to focus on offering a unique client experience that remains fully transparent and conflict-free.” Belland has been with the company for 28 years and has led it through many changes and challenges.

“Respect and communication are the foundation of our culture,” he says. “As a leader, I strive to ensure that employees are included and engaged in our overall mission, making sure that recognition comes from teamwork and client satisfaction. ”

“By retaining and encouraging employee ownership, we strengthen that level of commitment and sense of worth throughout the company. Having employees bring ideas forward and lead new initiatives creates a broad sense of leadership.”

“Communication, respect and recognition provide the opportunity for everyone to be a leader.”

The business aims to grow as a global leader in a niche market by remaining client-centric, truly global, and focused on its areas of expertise.


History and Future: Two Things Pilipinas Shell Takes Into Account in All of its Dealings

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation traces its roots back to 1914, when the Asiatic Petroleum Company (Philippine Islands) Ltd was established and has since then established itself as a leader in corporate governance.

Ppinas Shell (PSPC), 55 percent owned by the Royal Dutch Shell Group (RDS), has grown to become one of the leading, and most responsible, oil marketing businesses in the Philippines. The Company’s mission is to power progress for the Filipino people by providing more, and cleaner, energy solutions. Its stated values are honesty, integrity, and respect for people.

[caption id="attachment_18722" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation’s Management Team[/caption]

Pilipinas Shell is at the forefront of innovation and presents a world-class case for investment. It caters to the country’s energy requirements through world-class standards and processes, cutting edge technology/services, and innovative and superior fuel- related products.

It has a wholesale commercial offering with targeted customer value propositions, and prides itself on continuing to prepare for energy transition by focusing on low carbon operations and readiness for future developments. PSPC is aligned with and shall contribute to RDS’s ambition of becoming a net-zero emission energy business by 2050. It is reducing its carbon footprint in its current assets with solar panels, power-saving lighting fixtures, energy equipment and green landscaping in retail stations; and construction of an industrial-scale solar farm at the Tabangao (Luzon island) facility.

Its products and initiatives include Bitufresh Air bitumen solution for road construction which works to cut specific particulates, equivalent of planting an average of 16 trees every year and a Carbon-sink Management Programme — planting 90,000 trees in Quezon, Philippines to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions.

Corporate Governance and Sustainability

“We aim to continue being a role model for world-class corporate governance and conduct business in an open and transparent manner, consistent with our existing corporate governance standards,” the Company says. It is committed to overall business sustainability and has adopted its own Revised Manual of Corporate Governance, which requires regular review for continuous improvement and compliance with regulatory and statutory developments.

PSPC assesses corporate governance on the basis of achieving overall business sustainability. Corporate governance structures are instituted and maintained to create value for Pilipinas Shell — while providing accountability and control systems commensurate with risk.

The organisation also adheres to strict health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) standards and maintains a relentless focus on responsible performance. Through the concept of Goal Zero — with particular focus on personal, process and transport safety, PSPC seeks to achieve “no harm and no leaks” across all of its operations. These standards apply to all aspects of its activities, from the design of facilities to decommissioning of former sites.

Pilipinas Shell provides a comprehensive, accurate and timely report of its financial condition/ results, business operations, material facts or events and is known to adhere on exceptional ESG standards as reported in its Annual Sustainability Report.

A Trusted Company

The Company strives to be a good neighbour and contributes to community well-being through the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. This non-profit arm champions the Movement Against Malaria health programme that has cut malaria deaths in the Philippines by 97 percent over the past 20 years. PSFI implements programmes designed to build capacities to promote self-reliance, and develop the potential of its beneficiaries, both individuals and communities.

PSPC attracts and retains diverse talent with compelling and impactful career opportunities around the world. It has a network of 1,135 retail service stations. The fastest-growing segment of its non-fuel business has a network of 148 Shell Select convenience stores, 70 of which have Shell Select deli2go café formats, and 391 Shell Helix Oil Change+ lube bays.


La Trobe Financial: Experienced Hands, Unblemished Record

Established in 1952 and with $11bn in AUM, La Trobe Financial is one of Australia’s leading non-bank financial institutions specialising in funding and investment solutions.

The firm’s performance record in times of volatility and low rates has proven popular with investors for almost seven decades. La Trobe Financial is 80 percent owned by Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms with AUM of more than $584bn. Blackstone is recognised for its expertise in credit and property with a relentless focus on investment discipline.

La Trobe Financial is a proven and trusted partner for institutional and retail investors, operating Australia's largest retail credit fund with AU$5bn in AUM and 50,000 retail investors.

Chris Andrews, chief investment officer and deputy CEO, says La Trobe has built a reservoir of trust with investors. “We have genuine conviction in the resilience of our strategies through market cycles,” he said. “We’ve been able to draw from these experiences and have continued to grow the La Trobe Financial business through the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Over the past five years, La Trobe Financial has delivered more than $596 million in interest income to investors in the Credit Fund.”

At the helm is a seasoned economist, La Trobe Financial CEO and president Greg O’Neill OAM. O’Neill has an enviable CV with previous positions at computer firm NCR Australia, Security Permanent Building Society, and Advance Bank (Australia).

[caption id="attachment_18726" align="alignright" width="200"] La Trobe Financial CEO and President: Greg O’Neill OAM[/caption]

O’Neill is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a life fellow of the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance, and a past member of the International Committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

He is a past chair of the National Basketball League and of the Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club (2006-2009 — during his tenure, the club competed in four finals, winning two National Championships). He is currently an ambassador for Basketball Australia’s elite programme, and chairman of the Australian Basketball Players Association.

In 2019 Greg O’Neill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to business and to basketball.

Chris Andrews talks with CFI.co about the firm’s growth — even during the pandemic.

What differentiates you from your competition?

Our approach has been refined over seven decades of continuous operation and a variety of economic cycles. We have serviced institutional and retail mandates exceeding $28bn and covering more than 180,000 individual loan assets.

Throughout this period, we have delivered targeted returns to all of our portfolio investors, whether institutional or in our pooled retail offerings, without loss of a single cent of capital or interest. This is an unprecedented track record of consistent performance for our investors.

Our industrial strength credit assessment process, highly conservative LVR maxima and careful portfolio construction disciplines are hallmarks of our investment programme. We combine these with our innovative co-investment model to deliver market-leading diversification and buffer portfolios against times of market stress.

At an organisational level, we have built a highly diversified funding and capital model — the most diversified in the sector and a key differentiator to others in our space. We manage $4bn under institutional mandates, which include three of the Australia’s Big Four banks and three household-name global banks. These are complemented by a market-leading residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) programme for global institutional investors.

Our award-winning credit fund holds $5bn in AUM for over 50,000 investors, who range from sophisticated fund managers, family offices and finance houses right through to everyday investors. It holds the highest ratings in the sector from Australia’s independent fund ratings houses and has developed an enviable reputation for consistency — especially during times of market volatility.

Over the past five years, La Trobe Financial has delivered more than $596m in interest income to investors in the credit fund. What to your mind are the key reasons for your success?

[caption id="attachment_18727" align="alignleft" width="242"] La Trobe Chief Investment Officer and deputy CEO: Chris Andrews[/caption]

Our disciplined investment philosophy is the main one. Our rigorous credit assessment process targets a portfolio of granular exposures, highly diversified by geography and sector and with strictly controlled loan to value ratios. Our role as a fund manager is not to be all things to all people, but to be clearly focused and deliver with distinction. Our team is driven by the need for consistency and repeatability of performance.

Since its establishment in 1952, La Trobe Financial has ensured it remains grounded during times of volatility. Our investment style is built around delivering performance throughout the economic cycle. We have conviction that our chosen asset class and rigorous investment disciplines will continue to deliver outsized returns for investors.

When you have been in the market for almost seven decades, you develop a certain realism about the inevitability of the cycle. We have retained a very disciplined investment program over a long period of time that favours fundamentals over fashion.


UnionBank of the Philippines: Steadfast, Agile and Ready for Whatever Life Brings - a Bank Behind its People

UnionBank of the Philippines has won recognition for its industry-leading digitalisation efforts and commitment to improving the lives of its customers through technology and innovation.

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" link="none" ids="18731,18730,18732,18733"]

Awards underscore UnionBank's success in maximising the potential of technology to better serve its customers. It is driven by the goal of promoting a new reality for banking, where “services are embedded in the fabric of daily life”.

Of note is UnionBank's unique infrastructure, which has resulted in one of the leanest branch networks in the region, powered by concentrated back-office operations and hundreds of paperless branches. It includes 50 fully digital branches, thousands of ATMs and partner remittance centres, and a wealth of self-service kiosks and online banking platforms.

The bank saw new digital accounts opened even during March and April, the height of the lockdown period in the Philippines this year. It successfully implemented measures for consumer debt-relief and the facilitation of donations during the same period. The bank also introduced a retail loan platform, supported by video KYC, that reduced processing times. UnionBank pushes fintech boundaries to reach underserved and unbanked communities, and supports SMEs with the financing and digital tools.

UnionBank of the Philippines is reaping the benefits of its digital focus and agile operations: retail banking profits doubled in 2019, resources hit a five-year high, and net income increased by 104 percent year-on-year.

“We began to pursue digital transformation four years ago in order to survive the winds of disruption,” said UnionBank president and CEO Edwin R Bautista. “UnionBankers kept the faith in that digital transformation, and believed in what we can achieve together. Today, they are leading the charge.

“Despite the developments, our purpose remains unchanged: to elevate lives and fulfill dreams. Our greater purpose is to extend digital banking to the mass market and the unbanked so they too can withstand disruption during troubled times.”

With a challenge as massive as Covid-19, technology has proven to be the correct instrument — but not the answer in itself, Bautista believes. “Ultimately, it is our UnionBank DNA that is pulling us through,” he said. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to ‘Tech Up, Pilipinas’ and enable inclusive prosperity to fuel sustained growth, making sure that no one gets left behind.”


Sasseur REIT: Unique EMA Model Aligns Interests of All Stakeholders

Singapore Exchange-listed Sasseur REIT is the first retail outlet mall real estate investment trust listed in Asia.

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="18737,18736,18738,18739"]

It offers investors the opportunity to invest in the fast-growing sector in the People’s Republic of China through its initial portfolio of four mall assets strategically located in the fast-growing cities of Chongqing, Bishan, Kunming and Hefei, with a net lettable area of 312,844 square meters.

Sasseur Cayman Holding Ltd, the REIT’s sponsor, is a leading premium outlet group ranked among China’s top 500 service companies. With 13 outlet malls in 12 major cities, Sasseur is recognised for the integration of art, aesthetics, operational excellence and prudent capital management.

China’s retail outlet industry has remained resilient in the face of the pandemic. Sasseur REIT has bounced back from temporary closures early in 2020, with sales from July to September nearing pre-Covid levels. The rise of China’s middle class — Sasseur REIT’s main customers — and government policies to encourage domestic consumption have contributed to the performance of the REIT, and to the continued growth of the sector.

Sasseur’s malls stand out because of their unique “A x (1 + N) x DT” Super Outlet business model, where A = arts, 1 = outlet business, N = lifestyle activities and DT = data technology. Sasseur combines art, commerce and other activities to position its malls as lifestyle centres that offer an attractive range of retail, cultural, tourism and entertainment activities.

Unlike many traditional retail-related REITs, Sasseur — through its entrusted management agreement ("EMA") — does not collect a fixed rent from the majority of its tenants. Instead, it pegs the rent to tenant sales, which aligns the interests of mall owner, entrusted manager, tenants and REIT unit-holders. Based on the EMA, the REIT’s income comprises a fixed component, which grows at three percent annually according to contract, and a variable component that is pegged to sales. The fixed component provides income stability while the variable component allows investors to enjoy upside derived from commercial activity.

With several projects in the pipeline, Sasseur REIT's manager intends to acquire high-quality outlet malls with good investment characteristics in China, or other parts of Asia and the world.


Otaviano Canuto: Central Banks and Inequality

While the economic recovery around the world remains uneven, fragile, and unbalanced across sectors, financial markets are generally doing very well, thanks! In the United States, only half of the unemployment caused by the pandemic last year has been reversed, while stock markets continued to boom. Of course, this largely reflected the extraordinary support given by monetary authorities since March last year.

As in the period after the 2007-08 global financial crisis, voices have been raised talking about monetary policy and central banks as drivers of income and wealth inequality. The unconventional policies of “quantitative easing” protect the holders of financial assets and value their properties, while workers cross a rough patch on the real side of the economy. As we have already discussed here, financial markets have disconnected from hardships in the street of commons, with the help of the policies of monetary authorities.

Does it make sense to assign an impact of concentration of income and wealth to central bankers' policies? It's complicated...

The argument about central banks’ unconventional monetary policies worsening inequality typically begins with the remark that monetary easing acts in part by raising asset prices, like stock prices. As the rich own more assets than the poor and middle class, “quantitative easing (QE)” policies would increase already high disparities of wealth in countries where they have been applied.

However, first consider that volatility and below-potential macroeconomic performance particularly affect the bottom of the income and wealth pyramids. Adequate fulfillment of the stabilizing function attributed to central banks is good for those who have less capacity to defend themselves against unemployment and inflation.

To those who always ask me about rescuing or supporting financial institutions in crisis situations, I always ask back about what the alternative scenario would be. The design of such support can always minimize the rewards in terms of wealth of owners, but the truth is that macroeconomic scenarios in cases where the financial system collapses cannot be out of sight, as economic recovery gets harder under such circumstances.

Mary Daily, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, recently observed how the long expansion of the United States economy after the global financial crisis could only happen because of the stabilization measures that followed, with interest rates decided on the basis of a return of inflation to the 2% per year target. Unemployment rates fell to levels close to historical lows. The country's average GDP growth rate in the period fell short of previous decades, but this was not due to monetary policy. She notes:

“This created real opportunities for a large number of sidelined Americans, many of whom were thought to be permanently out of the labor force or lacking the right skills to work in an evolving job market. (…) By early 2019, employers were hiring African American and Hispanic workers at rates equal to or higher than those of white workers. (…) This reduced long-standing unemployment gaps, narrowing them to historic lows.”

In addition, according to a recent Federal Reserve Bank bulletin, the prolonged macroeconomic expansion particularly valued the assets held by those at the bottom of the wealth pyramid (Bhutta et al, 2020). Figure 1 shows how the U.S. median family net worth kept climbing from 2013 to 2019, while the mean family net worth exhibited a lower performance. Median measures divide the population in two halves and are lower than means because of the degrees of wealth concentration at the top. A rising median relative to the mean therefore means that the net worth of families at the lower part of the pyramid grew more.

[caption id="attachment_18766" align="aligncenter" width="387"] Figure 1: - Change in median and mean family net worth, 2013–19 surveys. Source: Bhutta et al (2020) [/caption]

There are those economists who do not recognize the need for macroeconomic stabilization through proactive central banks and argue that loose monetary policies favor the top of the pyramid. This would be the case if expansionist policies favored profits more than wages, in addition to the extraordinary gains of the financial intermediaries used to implement the policies (Weiss, 2019). Empirical evidence, however, points to the predominance of distributional effects on income from expansionary monetary policies (Colbion et al, 2014). Across business cycles, monetary policy effects do not tend to make much of a net effect on overall inequality (Bernanke, 2015).

If, on the one hand, it does not seem appropriate to say that stabilization policies by central banks increase inequality, on the other it is increasingly recognized how inequality in income and wealth affects the effectiveness of their policies. As Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva, Deputy General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements recently noted (BIS, 2021):

“…inequality reduces the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission. (…) . High income concentration can indeed affect the transmission of monetary policy through the different effects easy monetary conditions have across heterogeneous households. Wealthier households have a much lower propensity to consume; hence their consumption may be less reactive to monetary stimulus. In turn, poorer households may not benefit from easier credit conditions because they lack collateral or adequate credit scores and are hence unable to borrow.”

The heterogeneity of monetary policy effects on heterogeneous household conditions is illustrated in Figure 2, taken from a speech by Philip R. Lane, member of the Executive Board of the ECB. It displays how the overall effect on consumer spending through various transmission channels of a 100-basis point cut in eurozone interest rates varies according to household wealth. As Lane (2019) explains:

“First, the standard, intertemporal substitution channel is present only for financially-unconstrained households which are able to save. It makes up only about a third of the total impact on aggregate consumption. Second, the cash-flow channel is particularly strong for homeowners with limited financial assets, who tend to have large mortgages, often with adjustable rates. Third, spending is substantially stimulated via the income channel. This channel is heavily skewed towards lower-income households, who also tend to benefit disproportionately from a stronger labor market. Fourth, the strongest asset price effect occurs through the increases in house prices. This effect turns out to be quite large for highly leveraged homeowners, since their consumption is more sensitive to house prices.”

[caption id="attachment_18767" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2: Effects of a 100-basis point cut in interest rates on consumption in the euro area, depending on household wealth. Source: Lane (2019)[/caption]

Notes: The figure shows a decomposition of the effects of a 100-basis point cut in interest rates on consumption. The total consists of four parts. The standard intertemporal substitution effect (IES), the cash-flow effect, the income effect, and the housing wealth effect. The size of these effects varies depending on households’ wealth. Euro area in this chart refers to France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Consumption spending of the lower-income cohort and the cohort of homeowners with only limited financial assets rises more intensively as a result of a 100-basis point cut in interest rates, moving up by almost 1.0 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, while consumption of the financially unconstrained group increases only by 0.4 percent. The bottom-line is that the effects of monetary policy decisions depend on the profile of income and wealth distributions.

The rise in income and wealth inequality in recent history in many countries has fundamental, structural reasons, such as technological changes and the impacts of globalization, in addition to the absence of effective social protection networks and national traits regarding race bias, ethnicity, gender, and social classes in access to education, jobs and sources of income. Tax and public spending policies can do a lot about it. Financial regulators can also help through actions and regulations that democratize access and availability of financial resources at low cost, minimizing market concentration.

In principle, it would be up to monetary policy to avoid unemployment and inflation, as in inflation targeting regimes adopted by independent central banks. It should be noted, on the other hand, that recent developments in central bank policies, going beyond controlling short-term interest rates and avoiding the illiquidity of longer-term assets, tend to blur the borders between monetary and fiscal policies, due to the selectivity over what assets to favor.

In this context, there are even proposals for coordination between fiscal and monetary policies to define fiscal programs to be supported via monetization by the central bank (Bartsch et alii, 2019). There is also the proposal by Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, to grant special treatment to “green bonds” in their asset acquisition programs, making “quantitative easing (QE, in English)” a “quantitative greening”. Like the climate agenda, fiscal programs dealing with inequality may well end up falling into the central bank arena!

About the Author

Otaviano Canuto, based in Washington, D.C, is a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution, an adjunct assistant professor at SIPA – Columbia University, a professorial lecturer of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs - George Washington University, and principal of the Center for Macroeconomics and Development. He is a former vice-president and a former executive director at the World Bank, a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund and a former vice-president at the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also a former deputy minister for international affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance and a former professor of economics at University of São Paulo and University of Campinas, Brazil.


Roche: New Solutions to Old Problems? Fintech Can Change Healthcare

[caption id="attachment_18788" align="alignright" width="300"] Author: Pablo Morales[/caption]

Fintech is a term applied to technology-driven disruptions such as mobile money, blockchain, and big data analytics in payment, banking, or insurance services.

Given its digital nature, Fintech has made financial services more inclusive, accessible, and affordable by reaching millions of previously underserved populations such as the unbanked, rural, or informal sectors. This same potential in connectivity, efficiency gains, and expansive thinking can be realised in the healthcare space to transform the ways health services are financed.

Healthcare financing is a complex and evolving space with implications for economic development and individual wellbeing. Many nations firmly believe in the importance of transforming their health financing systems to attain strategic objectives such as Universal Health Care in the mid-term and have taken serious steps towards this transformational goal. But the overall results of these efforts are not quite yet as expected.

The necessary expansion of services has resulted in increases in out-of-pocket expenditure at a high cost to individuals and their families. Policymakers in every health system are faced with challenges in key areas of raising revenues, pooling resources, and conducting strategic purchasing of goods and services. Establishing a predictable and sustainable flow of funds while ensuring that the financial burden is fairly shared across society has proven no easy task.

Changing this situation requires we all take a different approach and leverage innovative ways to overcome the structural barriers preventing access to healthcare. In this respect, compared to the previous decade, the digitalisation of financial transactions and the spread of mobile phones have created a way to overcome the hurdles in healthcare financing.

[caption id="attachment_18789" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Source: ACCESS Health International[/caption]

Mobile money platforms have grown in recent years, particularly in emerging markets, where base-of-the pyramid populations often lack access to basic health services but possess mobile phones. Over two billion people use at least one available mobile money service and there are currently over 900 planned or deployed mobile health products and services. Over the next few years, the global market for these solutions is expected to exceed $30bn, as stakeholders look to reduce costs, add value, and enhance the reach of health services.

The unprecedented connectedness of today’s society, together with an expanding data-processing capacity, is creating opportunities for new health financing models in response to funding gaps in current systems. These models are disrupting pre-established structures and reshaping all aspects of financial services.

One clear example can be seen in China, with Ant Financial’s mutual aid health insurance platform, Xiang Hu Bao. In less than a year since its launch in October 2018, the platform attracted over 100 million people and aimed to reach another 300 million over the next couple of years.

Xiang Hu Bao, which literally means “mutual protection”, provides its participants with a basic health plan against 100 types of critical illness, including thyroid cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, critical brain injury, and acute myocardial infarction. Without the need for upfront payments or premiums, all participants share health risks, and the related medical expenses. It is not a health insurance product, but complements the health insurance offering in the market.

In countries with high out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure, the lack of financial protection forces people to go without treatment — or experience catastrophic expenditure seeking care. This has opened a space for digital saving and lending platforms that can fill this space while national health systems have not yet matured. Two interesting examples are M-TIBA and Arogya Finance.

M-TIBA facilitates mobile money transfers between funders, patients, and healthcare providers. The platform directs funds from public and private funders directly to patients into a digital "health wallet" payment app for health services in M-TIBA-approved clinics, for public and private insurance premiums. For the case of Arogya, this social healthcare venture offers loans to cover healthcare needs to the traditionally unbankable, using innovative risk-assessment tools.

A Financial Journey

These initiatives share important similarities. In all cases, fintech applications borrowed from other dimensions of financial services have been redirected to healthcare services. More importantly, all of these have the potential for scalability and transferability to other countries.

These and other evolving developments across savings, lending, and payments platforms have the potential to transform healthcare across the world, by revolutionising and scaling health funding and financing mechanisms for public and private payers. In the short- and mid-term, fintech can bring substantial impacts in the healthcare space.

Expanding the health financing base. Connectivity among digital users strengthens health system resource pooling capabilities enabling risk transferrals among groups.

Increasing financial protection. Inclusive digital finance mechanisms can help reduce individual OOP throughout the patient financial journey.

Supporting data-driven environments. Meaningful data generation will continue to tailor health products and services to patient needs and monitor for improvements.

Fostering innovation in healthcare. Opens opportunity for multiple stakeholder collaboration and increased investment channeled towards the healthcare space.

Going forward, as new fintech models are developed and capabilities continue to expand, so will the practical applications of these innovations. Systems continue to integrate, allowing for quicker and more efficient decisions. This opens new avenues for public, private, NGOs and development organizations to explore ideas, pilot solutions, and share their learnings. This enables the collective intelligence required to finally leave old problems behind.

Where Roche is Going

Roche’s global track record of healthcare funding work, understanding of medical needs for the treatment of NCDs, global footprint, and expanding network puts the firm in a position to contribute to the development, co-creation, and delivery of meaningful funding and financing solutions to expand access to healthcare.

It sees fintech developments as key drivers for innovation and as strong contributors, to build the next-gen infrastructure to satisfy future global healthcare needs.

The company engages with a broad range of multisectoral stakeholders to foster a global fintech for health network that will:

Drive connection and co-creation between Roche and Fintech players (banks, telecommunications, insurtechs, data start-ups)

Foster a strong and dynamic fintech for the health ecosystem

Accelerate the design and implementation of fintech models and solutions that positively impact patient access to healthcare

Leverage fintech developments to support the advancement of Universal Health Care.

Roche is partnering with fintechs, healthcare providers, and civil society to launch promising digital mutual aid schemes and crowdfunding platforms as well as explore insurtech models that can address financial shortfalls.

Findings from these initiatives will reinforce future developments as Roche continues to pilot and learn while creating access to innovation for patients.

About the Author

Pablo Ignacio Morales is a Health Systems Strategy Leader at Roche’s Global Access organization. In his role, Pablo collaborates with public and private stakeholders to support the development of innovative and sustainable models to finance access to healthcare. He is currently exploring the potential of financial technology to strengthen health system funding in low and middle-income countries. His educational background is in Industrial Engineering and holds a Masters in Health Economics from the University of Queensland, Australia. Before joining Roche, he built a career as a Strategic Management consultant working for top consulting firms as E&Y and PwC. Additionally, as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank he led the design of national health policy changes in Costa Rica. Pablo Morales is currently a full-time resident in Basel, Switzerland.


Charlene Cranny: Tipping-Point Year on the Road to Net-Zero Reality, with a Transition Truly Under Way

[caption id="attachment_18793" align="alignright" width="284"] Charlene Cranny: communications and campaigns director at UKSIF[/caption]

Future generations will look back on 2020 as a year defined by the Covid-19 crisis, but Charlene Cranny believes it will also mark the tipping point in which “the European transition to net-zero became unstoppable”.

Cranny is the communications and campaigns director at the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF). UKSIF membership is open to financial firms and stakeholders — such as asset owners, advisers, and civil societies — who are committed to growing a more sustainable economy that works for people and planet as well as prosperity.

UKSIF aims to influence public policy, raise industry ambitions and standards, and increase acceptance and demand from investors. Cranny has seen remarkable progress over the past two years. The UK put net-zero targets into legislature, the European Commission proposed a legal framework to become net-zero by 2050, and big commitments were pledged by leaders in the aviation, oil and gas, mining, steel and cement industries.

More governments and businesses will continue to come on board, Cranny insists, because the sustainability transition has become inevitable. Nearly 200 countries and over 1,300 organisations — including numerous financial firms — have signed the 2015 Paris Pledge. But now, a new private finance agenda launched by UK COP26 should provide signatories with concrete measures to uphold that promise.

“Set against the backdrop of a European climate law and consultation on a renewed sustainable finance strategy — and mobilisation around a green and fair recovery from Covid — now might be a good time for firms to think about their own net-zero transition. Perhaps to announce ahead of the COP26 climate change conference in November next year?” Cranny wrote in an op-ed for the business strategy magazine, Funds Europe.

“In any case, the transition to a healthier economy is wonderfully underway. Together, we are building back better.”

Responsible investing and green finance will play a huge role in driving that change. Cranny scoffs at any lingering misconceptions that assume ethical investing would compromise returns.

“Morgan Stanley compared the performance of 11,000 sustainable and non-sustainable funds over 14 years (2004-2018). They found no statistically significant difference in total returns, but sustainable funds proved lower risk and outperformed in periods of volatility. A quality that held true during the pandemic,” she said.

“There are thousands of studies that in aggregate tell the same story. Sustainable investment adds value financially, socially and environmentally.”

She argues the case for ESG integration into the investment decision process of each and every investor — whether they care about sustainability outcomes or not.

“Corruption, boycotts, strikes, legal challenges, tighter regulation, droughts, wildfires, failed crops … These all have an often-huge impact on company value and ability to operate,” Cranny warns. “ESG analysis gives a heads-up in a way last quarter’s financial statement cannot. Then, if you are looking for improved ESG outcomes, you’ll engage with at risk companies to rein in those damaging behaviours.

“Companies are trawling, drilling, mining, burning, polluting and chopping vast areas of the earth's surface. Wildlife populations are down 60 percent since 1970, 40 percent of plants threatened with extinction and 46 percent of the planet’s trees have been felled. And that's before we even look at carbon emissions or the fair treatment of people and communities.
“But it doesn't have to be this way. We can redirect capital to healthier, more sustainable companies and projects to protect people, places and prosperity. We still have time. Just.”

Consumers must also assume some of the responsibility to achieve global sustainability goals. Cranny has served over the past four years as the director of UKSIF’s Good Money Week, an annual awareness campaign that challenges people to think about money in a more responsible manner. The annual event takes place in October, but the resource-rich website is open all season long. Cranny encourages visitors to explore the site to find the most sustainable and ethical solutions for banking, pensions, savings and investments — options that work for people, planet, health and wealth.

The campaign has helped move “ethical money stories from niche to normal”. Cranny is a frequent guest on national TV and radio programmes and a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines. While grateful for the shift in public perception, her next personal challenge will be “to see this growing acceptance translate into increased demand and ‘good’ money options becoming the norm”.


The Size of Biden’s Fiscal Package

[caption id="attachment_18804" align="alignright" width="300"] President Joe Biden. Photo: Gage Skidmore[/caption]

The monetary policy report submitted by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to the U.S. Congress on Friday Feb. 19 showed that the Fed’s members have improved economic growth expectations for 2021 and 2022, expect lower unemployment rates. Meanwhile, only two of the 18 participants projected PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation to (slightly) exceed the 2% that serves as the longer-run objective for the monetary policy regime.

In this context, is there some justification for fears on the part of some that the $1.9 trillion fiscal package sent to Congress by the Biden government, with approval expected by mid-March, carries the risk of bringing too much stimulus to the country's economy, which is already recovering? Could the package cause inflation spikes and, consequently, a reversal of the looseness in monetary policy, with an increase in interest rates causing shocks to highly indebted non-financial companies?

There are even those who suggest the recent slight rise in longer-term interest rates on Treasury debt securities already reflect such an expectation. Last week, yields on 10-year bonds reached 1.3%, after being slightly above 0.9% at the beginning of the year. Several analysts pointed to yields implicit in 10-year protected-against-inflation government securities as embedding inflation expectations at around 2.2%, the highest since 2014. Figure 1 shows recent spikes in 5-to-10-year-forward inflation compensation.

[caption id="attachment_18802" align="aligncenter" width="481"] Figure 1: 5-to-10-year-forward inflation compensation. Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, February 19, 2021.[/caption]

When added to previous packages since the beginning of the pandemic crisis, amounts equivalent to 13% of GDP will be reached, something unprecedented since the Second World War. It was very striking that the concern about excess has been expressed by renowned economists—including Lawrence Summers and Olivier Blanchard—who have always called for fiscal policies to not leave the task of recovery entirely on the shoulders of monetary policy.

Even before considering the Biden package, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office had already projected the country's GDP as exceeding the pre-pandemic level this summer. If the Trump administration's second package was enough, the impact of the Biden package on demand (9% of GDP) would be beyond what is necessary for the return to potential GDP. Morgan Stanley Research has forecast a 6.5% GDP growth rate for 2021 and a trajectory even above the pre-COVID-19 path (Figure 2).

[caption id="attachment_18803" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Figure 2: US real GDP (rebased Q4 2019 = 100). Source: Gille, C., Financial Times, February 18, 2021.[/caption]

The fiscal package has components that need to be differentiated. On the one hand, it would provide an amount of resources that could be considered as part of the extraordinary public expenditure related to the pandemic, and which does not correspond to a macroeconomic recovery policy, even though it will have an impact on aggregate demand. This includes money to speed up the vaccination campaign, including spending by subnational entities, and reinforcement of unemployment insurance. On the other hand, items pointed out as excessive and poorly focused include another round of checks sent directly to households, as was done last year.

Paul Krugman, for his part, has expressed less concern about the potential excess aggregate demand that would be be brought about by such checks, which would not be focused on the lower levels of the income pyramid, judging by their diversion to precautionary savings by households last year. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers reiterated that, even if this is the case, the corresponding fiscal space should have been reserved for some future package that is expected to come for investments in infrastructure and “green recovery”.

However, two relevant aspects must be taken into account. First, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, it would be better to run the risk of excess than insufficiency.

In addition, the Federal Reserve's new monetary policy regime puts the 2% inflation target as an average, not as a ceiling forcing monetary policy to act to prevent it in advance. After a long period of inflation below 2%, even in years with low unemployment and interest rates on the floor, monetary authorities can afford to wait some time with above-average inflation until they are compelled to pull the brake. The report presented to Congress Feb. 19 says this explicitly.

Otaviano Canuto, based in Washington, D.C, is a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution, an adjunct assistant professor at SIPA – Columbia University, a professorial lecturer of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs - George Washington University, and principal of the Center for Macroeconomics and Development. He is a former vice-president and a former executive director at the World Bank, a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund and a former vice-president at the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also a former deputy minister for international affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance and a former professor of economics at University of São Paulo and University of Campinas, Brazil.

by Otaviano Canuto

First appeared at Policy Center for the New South


Government Should End Secretive Trade Negotiations, say UK Parliamentarians

[caption id="attachment_18844" align="alignright" width="300"] Houses of Parliament[/caption]

The government should overhaul its secretive approach to post-Brexit trade negotiations, according to a new report.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Trade & Export Promotion, which is backed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), suggests negotiations should be open to public scrutiny to build trust in future trade deals.

The recommendations in the Review of UK Trade Governance report include:

Expanding membership of the Board of Trade, Strategic Advisory Group and Trade Advisory Groups to include representatives from business, trade union, consumer, environmental, civil society, and academic groups

Reducing the imposition of NDAs on experts, which restrict consultation when developing advice

A statutory obligation to publish all documents related to international trade, with easy digital access

Parliament should be involved in all stages of trade negotiation, from the statutory right to debate draft mandates ahead of bilateral talks to ratifying deals in a timely manner

A law change obliging the government to publish all economic, environmental, and social impacts of a proposed agreement, including a clear statement on its net benefit to the country.

ICC UK secretary-general Chris Southworth said building trust in the trade system was vital to avoid a backlash over decisions on trade deals in areas such as the erosion of standards for workers, the environment, food, and health and safety. “The current system is too secretive,” he said, “with an over-zealous reliance on NDAs over pragmatism and common sense.

“There is a real risk that trade deals will be rushed through without any proper scrutiny. If agreements aren’t battle-tested, they could prove to be to the disadvantage of the UK as a whole. The Houses of Parliament must be involved at every stage of trade negotiations, and a wider range of experts given the freedom to offer proper advice.”

Lord Waverley, co-chair of the APPG on Trade and Export Promotion said the report reflected the consideration of evidence of written submission and oral discussions. “We now present an evidence-based set of recommendations that we encourage government to reflect upon as we define the new chapter in our trading history,” he said.

“The APPG for Trade & Export Promotion was founded on the principle of fostering greater dialogue between parliament, business, unions, consumers, academia, NGOs and civil society on all matters relating to trade.”

The first evidence session had delivered on this aspiration, bringing “the voice of prospects and prosperity to the heart of the national debate”.

The report was based on expert testimony from figures across business, consumer organisations, academia and civil society.

The APPG gathered evidence from organisations including Which?, the CBI, the TUC, the Scotch Whiskey Association, and GreenerUK.

Founded in September last year, the APPG for Trade & Export Promotion brings together parliamentarians from all parties, supported by other sectors. “We are working to promote an inclusive, sustainable approach to global trade involving all aspects of the trade agenda,” he said.

The APPG on Trade and Export Promotion will be holding further evidence sessions this year. More information is available at www.appgtrade.uk/events


CRC Credit Bureau Fizzes where Others Falter – Covid Pandemic Notwithstanding

[caption id="attachment_18853" align="alignright" width="236"] Dr Ahmed 'Tunde' Popoola[/caption]

CRC Credit Bureau Ltd (CRC) is a fully licensed credit bureau operator with tested and trusted solutions.

The private limited liability company, led by Dr Ahmed 'Tunde' Popoola, has operated in Nigeria for 11 years, incorporated under the laws of the federal republic. Its solutions have the backing of Dun & Bradstreet, a world player with 180 years of credit bureau experience.

CRC provides a nationwide information repository of credit profiles on corporate entities as well as consumers, enabling credit providers to make informed lending decisions.

CRC is Nigeria’s leading credit bureau, with the credit information on 95 percent of the Nigerian industry: commercial banks, non-bank institutions, retailers, and utility service providers.

Access to the bureau’s database enables creditors to effectively assess the levels of risk associated with new and existing customers, taking advantage of technology-driven products.

CRC consistently evolves by developing cutting-edge solutions from a robust database and technology-enabled platforms to address challenges faced by lenders and borrowers.

Facing the unique obstacles of the pandemic, CRC stood head and shoulders above its competitors by launching products and services to ensure continuous lending activities during lockdown.

The CRC Help Desk, an online support channel, was launched in March last year. Individuals and institutions are able to get swift responses to their questions and challenges from support staff. The bureau also launched the Application Programme Interface (API) for accessing and updating credit data.

With CRC’s API, lenders and credit providers continued to grant loans and post-paid services via automated access to CRC’s database of some 45 million credit profiles. CRC organised online webinars last year, educating and informing the public on credit and financial topics that directly affect businesses and personal finances despite the limitations imposed by the ongoing pandemic.

These activities helped solidify CRC’s thought-leadership position in the sector. CRC continues to place value on its most valuable asset: its people. The firm invests in the recruitment, retention and development of its dynamic and talented workforce.

The CRC Team works with professionalism and efficiency. With a foundation firmly rooted in technology, staff and corporate governance, CRC is ready to take on the future and move to the next level of growth and expansion as a data analytics solutions company that delivers innovative solutions to the Nigerian financial services sector.

All good teams have inspiring leaders and Dr Ahmed 'Tunde' Popoola has been the Managing Director and CEO of CRC Credit Bureau since its establishment in 2008.

He is a Nigerian banker, accountant, economist, entrepreneur, and business executive. He has an extensive experience in public and the private sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Prior to the establishment of CRC Credit Bureau, he was the CEO of the Abuja Enterprise Agency. Dr Popoola is at the forefront of the development of the nascent credit reporting system in Nigeria. He has held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and General Manager at a publicly listed bank.

Dr Popoola – affectionately known as ‘Tunde' Popoola – has earned his “Dr” honorific: he holds a PhD in Finance from the prestigious WITS Business School of the University of The Witwatersrand, South Africa, as well as master’s degrees in Banking and Finance and Economics from the University of Lagos.

He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He is an alumnus of various executive education programmes of the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan African University, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, Harvard University, as well as the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, International Management and Development (IMD), Switzerland, and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, US.

Dr Popoola is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and seven other professional bodies. He has received recognitions for his role in entrepreneurship, business management, finance and youth empowerment, including a special ministerial commendation for his innovation and promotion of youth enterprises.


WiseEnergy: Weathering Pandemic Storms a Result of Strong Culture and a Commitment to Clients and Mission

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world into uncharted waters. The ability to adapt to challenges solve problems can make a company not just a survivor, but a leader.

When the pandemic struck, WiseEnergy rapidly transformed from a predominantly office-based workplace to fully remote – literally overnight.

Rebecca Carter, WiseEnergy’s global managing director, said the company was able to do that thanks to “the technology, structure and culture we already had in place”.

“We are proud and thankful for the way our people have responded,” she said. “Today we can say that despite the pandemic and all its consequences on the business, WiseEnergy is still uniquely placed to manage and improve its clients’ plants through its active, proactive and innovative approach to managing assets.

“Innovation, technology and experience are the three pillars that set WiseEnergy apart.”

WiseEnergy drives superior results through investment in R&D and innovation. This means the company can translate engineering challenges into financial upside or savings, demonstrating the financial impact of different operational interventions.

WiseEnergy’s proprietary technology platform delivers rapid, high-quality, data-driven insights and results, irrespective of asset size, location or equipment make-up.

“Of course, investment in specialised technology platforms to manage assets – such as our proprietary platform – is key as it increases efficiency and reduces costly human mistakes,” said Carter.

WiseEnergy  is not just one of the longest-established specialist solar asset managers, it also has one of the largest teams of qualified and experienced solar asset management professionals in the industry. Its shared global services model provides clients with access to breadth and depth of specialist services, while offices in the UK, Italy, India and the US allow clients to benefit from local experience and expertise.

The company's ability to adapt so quickly to new challenges is not coincidental.

“Our agile, collegiate culture is something we have worked hard to cultivate,” says Heather Lizamore, group HR director. “It gives our people the environment, structure and empowerment to be leaders at every level, and to find solutions to challenges and opportunities we face in a growing, maturing sector.

“As we have worked through the impact of the pandemic, it is not only HR that has focused on maintaining a sense of belonging and wellbeing in our workforce. All our teams have shown immense creativity and resilience, finding ways to take care of each other while still remaining productive.

“I am consistently encouraged and impressed by the adaptiveness of our people – in terms of how they embrace new technologies, adjust to changing work practices, and support each other to deliver for our clients.”

The combination of a strong culture and thoughtful investment in globalisation has enabled WiseEnergy to adapt to the new reality with minimal disruption.

“The pandemic has increased the focus on renewable energy so it is more important than ever that we provide clients with the superior returns for which we are known if we are to fulfil our mission of expediting the world’s transition to green energy.

“Our job is to increase the revenue and minimise the risk and operating costs of the assets under our care so that we can help solar power become the pre-eminent clean energy choice. We still have a lot to learn and to improve, but we are excited to continue on our journey.”