About this learning event

Alongside near-term issues such as the pandemic, inflationary pressures and the prospect of higher interest rates, the participants in financial markets should address some of the structural factors altering the investment landscape. The latter includes also a rapid progress of sustainable finance, as business, regulators and investors continue along the charted path toward a sustainable global economy. Accordingly, the public and private sectors must take environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into account when making investment decisions. 

The event will focus on green, social and sustainability bonds as well as sustainability-linked bonds, becoming essential instruments in attracting private capital to finance the global needs. Today, the green, social and sustainability bonds are mandatory in the portfolio of each prominent bond issuer.

How you will benefit

Participants will learn about:

• Policy context of sustainable finance
• Climate change considerations in the Eurosystems monetary framework
• Climate change risks in the banking sector and stress tests
• Dynamics of green, social and sustainability bond markets
• International Capital Market Association green, social and sustainability bonds (ICMA GSS) principles and the proposal for EU green bond standard
• Essentials of issuing green, social and sustainability bonds with the emphasis on the sustainability bond of the Republic of Slovenia
• Greenium and performance of labelled bonds
• ESG investing and how debt investors integrate ESG into their strategies and investment portfolios

Who should attend

Bond issuers, investors, regulators, supervisors from ministries of finance, central banks and financial supervisory authorities, and others directly or indirectly involved in financial markets.

Faculty

This course will be delivered under the guidance of:

• Andrej Žagar, Front Office, Treasury Directorate, Ministry of Finance, Slovenia

Andrej Žagar has worked in front office of the treasury directorate of the at the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia for 5 years. Recently, he has been focusing on sustainable finance and was a member of the Slovenian presidency of the EU 2021 in the field of EU green bond standards. Before that, he worked for 8 years in the financial system department in the field of insurance and banking. 

• Marjan Divjak, Director General, Ministry of Finance, Treasury Directorate, Slovenia 

Marjan Divjak is the director general of the treasury directorate at the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia. The treasury directorate led by Marjan Divjak was awarded Sovereign Risk Manager of the year 2017 by the Risk Magazine. His responsibilities are funding, liability management, state budget liquidity management and single treasury account operations. He previously worked in the middle office of the treasury directorate. He was also an adviser in the office of the Prime Minister. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the SID Bank. Marjan Divjak is an external expert in the Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

He holds a BEng in civil engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Leeds University (UK), and an MSc in mathematical finance from the Mathematical Institute, Oxford University (UK).

• Caroline Peny, Director, Sustainable Capital Markets, BNP Paribas

Caroline Peny joined the sustainable capital markets team of BNP Paribas in 2017 and has overseen all sustainable bonds for which the BNP Paribas has acted as structuring advisor and/or bookrunner. She interacts with key stakeholders in the sustainable capital markets, including issuers, external reviewers, investors and regulators. She has led most of the key sustainable capital markets transactions and initiatives at BNP Paribas over the last six years, bringing sectorial firsts to the market, as well as innovative structures. Caroline especially focuses on pushing the Sustainable Bond Agenda for Sovereigns and her extensive experience has helped promote and develop this segment, including with Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Latvia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Caroline is part of the Executive Committee of the ICMA Principles and has contributed to deliver key guidelines for the market, including the Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles. Through ICMA, she has also participated in providing feedback to the regulators on the EU Green Bond Standards.

Caroline has 10 years of experience in the financial industry and played a key role in developing BNP Paribas’ well recognised franchise in the sustainable bond market, bringing it to  #1 in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region.

• Borys Matiash, Director, Head of Debt Capital Markets for Central and Eastern Europe, BNP Paribas

Borys Matiash has worked at BNP Paribas since 2013 and currently holds a director position within CEEMEA debt capital markets division of the bank. He leads BNP Paribas’ debt capital markets origination team in Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Israel. He originated, structured and executed a wide range of debt market transactions for sovereign, corporate and financial borrowers across emerging markets. After 10 years in the sector, he has worked on the debt transactions worth in excess of US$ 150bn, with a broad universe of borrowers and products captured, including a wide range of sustainable capital markets transactions across different sectors within the Central Eastern Europe region.

Borys graduated from HEC Paris (France) with an MSc in managerial and financial economics, and also obtained MSc in international economics from Taras Shevchenko National University Kyiv (Ukraine). In 2022, Borys received Global Capital’s “Most Impressive Emerging Market Origination Banker” award and was selected as one of Financial News (FN) Rising Stars of Investment Banking.

• Cilka Ferjančič, Consultant Analyst, Liquidity Management and Collateral Division, Banking Operations Department, Banka Slovenije

Cilka Ferjančič has more than 20 years of work experience at the central bank. She is skilled in monetary policy implementation, collateral management and financial market monitoring. Recently, she has also been active in the area of climate change considerations in the monetary policy framework. She is a member of the Working Group on Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Instruments and Procedures and Collateral Management Network at the European Central Bank. She is the author of several articles on money market, government securities, collateral management and interest rate benchmarks reforms published in the Journal of Money and Banking. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, specialized in finance.

• Iskra Sokolovska, Senior Analyst, Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policy Department, Banka Slovenije

Iskra  Sokolovska is working predominantly on climate risk analysis and stress testing. Prior to joining the bank in 2019, she worked as a teaching assistant at the School of Economics and Business of the University of Ljubljana and analyst in asset management and in private sector. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the School of Economics and Business of the University of Ljubljana (2020), where she also completed her Bachelor and Masters degree studies in Economics (2012) and Money and Finance (2014).

Practical information

For all the necessary information please read the General Information on Learning at CEF.

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: