Financial innovator Dr. Richard Sandor is known as the “father” of financial futures and carbon trading. He discusses the unheralded and significant environmental progress being made on the local level in the U.S., plus his latest innovation, an alternative to LIBOR, the troubled global interest rate benchmark. It’s the American Financial Exchange, an electronic exchange for direct interbank and financial institution lending and borrowing. It’s up and running and he considers it his “best idea yet.”

WEALTHTRACK #1524 published on November 30, 2018.

Explanation of acronyms used in this episode:

LIBOR: the London Interbank Offered Rate

U.S. AMERIBOR: a benchmark rate that reflects the actual market-determined cost of borrowing for U.S. financial institutions

Federal Reserve’s SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate): a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities.

SIFI: Systemically Important Financial Institution

INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE INC. (ICE): an American company that builds, operates and advances global financial and commodity markets

CHICAGO CLIMATE EXCHANGE (CCX): founded by Richard Sandor in 2003 as a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cap and trade scheme located in North America, and acquired by Intercontinental Exchange in 2010

EUROPEAN CLIMATE EXCHANGE (ECX): the leading marketplace for trading carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and internationally

TIANJIN CLIMATE EXCHANGE CO, LTD: China’s first carbon market cap-and-trade exchange

RGGI. Inc. (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative): the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.