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The International Securities Lending Association’s (ISLA) Council for Sustainable Finance (ICSF) has expanded its global reach with five new partnerships and a new buy-side member.
The ICSF was formed in February 2019, after more than 18 months of groundwork, to create a semi-autonomous entity to ISLA that would shoulder the global mission of creating “wide-ranging solutions for sustainable securities lending” through the introduction of a set of principles for sustainable securities lending (PSSL).
PSSL itself was created by the independent working group, chaired by Radek Stech, and consisting of prominent beneficial owners and partners, now driven by ICSF.
ICSF strongly believes that organisations must co-operate under a single global code if they are to achieve their sustainable securities lending objectives.
With PSSL now complete, the council is focused on partnering with regional industry bodies to achieve its wide-spread adoption and fine-tune certain aspect of the principles to better mesh with the individual characteristic of securities lending markets around the world.
The council’s new partners are the Canadian Securities Lending Association and the South African Securities Lending Association, along with EquiLend, FIS Global, IHS Markit, which it says will contribute achieving its global vision and mission of a data-driven sustainability agenda.
The council was already partnered with the Pan Asia Securities Lending Association and contributed to the trade body’s recent environmental, social and governance (ESG) market survey, along with EY.
Elsewhere, ICSF has also welcomed another buy-side member in Norges Bank Investment Management, bringing its total membership to nine beneficial owners.
Norges Bank Investment Management has joined existing members including PGGM, BlackRock, Aviva Investors, Aberdeen Standard InvestmentsAsset Management, NN Investment PartnersGroup, and KBC Asset Management.
The council’s chair outlined that his initial aim was to focus on gaining buy-in from beneficial owners, as they represent the underlying asset owners and therefore exemplify a crucial piece of the puzzle in establishing industry unity on the principles.
Speaking to SLT, Stech, who is also a senior law lecturer at Exeter University, emphasises that the membership ICSF now has represents the most prominent beneficial owners in the securities lending space.
Moreover, he says ICSF is also in discussions with a major Asian beneficial owner and another in Europe, but that the COVID-19 outbreak had slowed negotiations.
Agent lenders and borrowers will be invited to join the council in the near future, Stech confirms.
Through its values and actions, the ICSF has further emphasised its commitment to forge a global alliance of partners by contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
This doctrine includes goal 17, which highlights the need to create partnerships in order to achieve goals for sustainability.
ICSF is working with the University of Exeter to conduct a survey on PSSL. The council is inviting responses from industry participants and the survey can be accessed here.
