ICMA Podcast

In this new edition of the podcast series, ICMA Future Leaders (IFL) representatives, Michael Sansen, Charles Tissier and Majoke Hegen speak to Niall Bohan, Director, Asset and Financial Risk Management, Directorate-General for the EU Budget, European Commission. The IFL team discuss with Niall his own career development, progress within the Commission and current role and responsibilities, how new talent is recruited from across the EU and the steps taken to improve that journey, and how teams are developed to integrate the next generation into high-performance units.

Andy Hill of ICMA speaks to NowCM’s Robert Koller, CEO and Founder and Fredrik Creutz, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder about what has been achieved so far in digitising primary debt markets, its purpose and real-life benefits as well as the end-game of a digital bond market. They also discuss what a digital bond market requires to reach its full potential.

ICMA Future Leaders steering committee members, Michael Sansen, Charles Tissier and Majoke Hegen speak to Bertrand de Mazières, Director General of Finance at the European Investment Bank (EIB) about his career development, including career highlights such as the EIB’s pioneering work in issuing the first ever green bond, while offering his own personal advice to young professionals. Bertrand also gives his insights into the functioning of one of the world’s leading public institutions and expands on the various employment opportunities, including their GRAD programme which provides new graduates who have not had previous professional experience the possibility to work for the EIB.

The ICMA Social Bond Working Group is publishing a series of podcasts focusing on aspects of Social Bonds and their markets.

In this episode of the Social Bond podcast, the co-coordinators of the ICMA Social Bond Working Group present recent updates to two documents – the Harmonised Framework for Impact Reporting for Social Bonds and the Mapping to the SDGs for Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds – both released in June 2022 at the Annual General Meeting and Conference of the ICMA Principles. The presenters explore common questions about social bonds and highlight relevant documents as key resources available for social bond market participants on the ICMA Principles website.

ICMA’s Mushtaq Kapasi speaks with Ashwin Jolly, senior dealer at ICICI Bank UK plc, about the Indian bond markets. The conversation covers the different kinds of bonds and issuers in the onshore and offshore markets, key attractions and possible considerations for investors, performance so far in 2022, and the future of sovereign and sustainable issuance.

In the first of a new series on market integrity in sustainable finance, this podcast covers what is good and what is being questioned in the sustainable bond market with a focus on greenwashing risks and remedies. Denise Odaro, Head of Investor Relations, IFC and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles leads a lively discussion with Eila Kreivi, Chief Sustainable Finance Officer at EIB; Bram Bos, Lead Portfolio Manager Green Bonds at NNIP and Sean Kidney, CEO of the Climate Bond Initiative.

Max Castelli, Co-Chair of ICMA's Asset Management & Investors Council (AMIC) and Robert Parker, ICMA Senior Advisor review the economic and capital markets outlook, its impact on investor portfolios and the implications for the asset management Industry. They discuss issues of particular concern to investors, such as the prospects for growth, inflation and monetary policies, as well as a number of longer term issues including the response of the industry to climate change and the reversal of globalisation.

During this ICMA podcast, we sit down with Kristrún Tinna Gunnarsdóttir, Head of Strategy and Sustainability for Íslandsbanki. Íslandsbanki was the first bank in Iceland to establish a Sustainable Financing Framework. Kristrún introduces listeners to the main features of the framework and overall Sustainability approach at Íslandsbanki, and shares her views on potential areas for future focus and development.

Nordic representative for ICMA Future Leaders Rebekah Bray speaks with Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, one of the three founders of Female Invest. As business students in 2019, Anna-Sophie and her co-founders saw a clear gap in resources to educate women about how to invest, and decided to tackle the issue head-on by founding Female Invest. Today, the social e-learning platform has paying members across 77 countries and the co-founders are listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

ICMA Chief Executive Bryan Pascoe, chats to Yanqing Jia from ICMA’s Hong Kong office about how improving diversity and inclusion makes good business sense and the importance of industry leadership by setting a good example. While ICMA has made progress with its D&I initiatives to recruit and support a diverse workforce,  particularly in achieving gender diversity in the group, and in its enthusiastic support for an active international  ICMA Womens Network, his view is that we need to challenge ourselves in other areas, by looking to promote greater diversity of thought and recruiting from a broader range of social backgrounds.