With fixed-income investors still recovering from a year that arguably saw nearly every cycle of the market, we look ahead to 2025 across sectors, including sustainability-linked bonds, securitized products and the ongoing effects of inflation and moves by central banks.

The market for labeled bonds brings together issuers that wish to raise capital to finance various environmental and social commitments and build rapport with sustainability investors. We examine the key developments so far in the calendar year.

Integrating sustainability and climate risk and impact into bond and private-debt analysis is becoming an increasingly important aspect of portfolio construction. This paper discusses a range of metrics that could guide investors in making these assessments.

We found a strong historical correlation between a company’s MSCI ESG Rating and its cost of capital in both equity and debt markets. Firms assessed as the most resilient to financially material sustainability-related risks financed themselves more cheaply. 

Data from over 4,000 issuers, spanning nearly a decade revealed that companies with better MSCI ESG Ratings tended to have a lower cost of capital. It’s big news for investors and another step towards understanding the relationship between sustainability and financial performance. 

APAC firms are increasingly disclosing value-chain emissions and climate targets, reflecting progress in climate transparency. Smaller companies, however, lag in this area, and potentially face growing investor and regulatory pressure for disclosures. 

We assess the latest trends in labeled bonds, from the overall market to specific bond and issuer characteristics, to identify key developments in the rapidly growing and increasingly diverse labeled-bond market. 

With the market for sustainable (or labeled) bonds growing rapidly, we assessed their value relative to conventional bonds and found they consistently exhibited a green premium, or “greenium,” though it did diminish over time.

While examining use of proceeds remains a key element of analyzing green bonds, we highlight four additional metrics to assess these bonds and their issuers in a more quantitative way. They offer a new set of lenses with which to tackle the analysis.

The labeled-bond market brings together issuers that may wish to raise capital to finance various environmental and social commitments and build rapport with sustainability investors. What were the key developments in this market in the third quarter of 2023? 

Corporate decarbonization targets without capital commitments can lack credibility, and issuers of labeled corporate bonds led other bond issuers on climate targets. But just how well did these issuers perform in our assessment? 

We assess the latest trends in labeled bonds, from the overall market to specific bond and issuer characteristics, to identify key developments in the rapidly growing and increasingly diverse labeled-bond market. 

We assess the latest issuance trends and the overall market by multiple bond and issuer characteristics to identify key developments in the rapidly growing and increasingly diverse labeled-bond market. 

We explore three reasons why issuers typically issue labeled bonds: financing impact projects, financing their own environmental goals and building rapport with sustainability-oriented stakeholders. Have these issuers also enjoyed lower debt costs? 

Have banks with stronger ESG risk management practices been more financially resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic? We look at the asset quality, profitability and capitalization of banks around the world.