Launching on a shared mission with the London Stock Exchange
We are extremely excited to be working with the global leader that is London Stock Exchange, combining our technology and innovation with their market infrastructure, data and talent to be able to offer an additional and complimentary tool for corporate treasury.
It was clear from inception to delivery that a shared vision for how things could be better energised all involved to bring Sustainable FTFs to market. For those seeking to raise short-term financing, we offer access to an entirely new and uncorrelated investor base, whilst simultaneously broadening the depth and coverage of product for our esteemed clients. As always, we have sought to listen to the market, then applied ourselves to deliver the simplest, most transparent solution in an efficient manner in a world where time is rightly so very precious. For every solution there should first be a problem. Two major factors we had been aware of for some time really came to the surface both during and post-pandemic.
Firstly, there has been a clear inability for many firms to access short-term financing, leading to the creation of the CCFF (Covid Corporate Financing Facility) to provide liquidity so desperately needed by investment grade corporations that otherwise could not access wholesale capital markets. Our mission as always is to help plug gaps and be part of the solution, here deepening the pool of available funding options. By broadening the sources of cash available we want to assist in alleviating any likely reliance on state intervention in the future. Providing our client base with an additional means of diversifying cash portfolios in high quality short-dated product, felt like the perfect use for the infrastructure we have successfully used to deliver funding from new and previously untapped direct sources to our banking partners, government, and SSA issuers alike.
Secondly…ESG – where to begin?! There are few spaces more challenging to have truly credible solutions. Some early examples offered a less than ideal alternative to their non-ESG or standard equivalents. Others have proven to be controversial at best. Different measures can often provide conflicting evidence. Thankfully as the market grows, more participants are getting better at tackling what needs to be done. Standardisation where possible will be our friend. Using existing and proven frameworks, along with publicly available scoring has been at the core of our strategy, to create an ecosystem that is easy to understand and can scale quickly to help accelerate the transition. When approaching the space, it was of paramount importance for the offering to stand up to scrutiny, as well as being transparent and most importantly, honest. We all have a long way still to go, this forms part of the overall shift that is absolutely needed, a next step on a journey that will likely span decades.
London Stock Exchange has led from the front, having issued its first bonds in this space almost a decade ago. Since then, the sustainability and associated markets have grown and evolved, with the scale of issuance well beyond the $100 Billion mark and true testament to their success, acceptance, and adoption by the market.
Our combined partnership has high ambitions, to bring the final frontier of cash into scope for those wanting to do the right thing and meet their objectives of a better, cleaner, and sustainable future. Together we can be part of that change.