(Finance) – The challenges, risks and opportunities that the financial markets present to us on some of the most innovative asset classes present at the moment were the themes at the center of the Assiom Forex Spring Conferencethe first of two annual events dedicated to the main ones
financial market trends.
At the beginning, the President Massimo Mocio he recalled that the amount in circulation of sustainable bonds Europeans surpasses
2,000 billion of euros and the Green bonds they represent over 60%. Furthermore, according to AFME data, in 2023, the emissions they recorded a contraction equal to 3.5% compared to 2022.
The event was also an opportunity to present aanalysis of the main world stock exchanges relating to the five-year period 2018-2023. “The driving force behind stock exchange revenues, in general, not only at the ‘Europe’ level, is given by services that are not linked to the traditional core business of the stock exchanges such as trading and listing and associated services”, he stated Anna KunklSenior Partner of Be Consulting, explaining that data and post trading are among the non-“traditional” services. A focus also on challenges facing the Capital Market Union: from the post-tradingwhere Europe is behind in terms of infrastructure compared to the USA, the business of dataan “exploding” market worth 6 billion dollars and can continue to grow, up to digital assetsfor example crypto exchanges, which could give a further boost to the markets.
Another of the themes at the center of the conference was that of Green Bond. “Green bonds have cemented themselves as important instruments dedicated to financing the transition: the great value of these bonds, from the investor’s point of view, is that they guarantee transparency on the use of the proceeds and the positive impacts generated by the projects for which they are issued”, he underlined Federica CalvettiESG Coordinator of Eurizon. “With the new European standard for green bonds (EU GBS) – he continued – the EU intends to promote an even greater level of transparency by valorising projects that respect the stringent technical and performance criteria of the Taxonomy: These issues will be particularly interesting for products with a sustainable investment objective under the SFDR regulation. However, speaking of transition, it is good to remember that, on a global level, green bonds have also been added in recent years sustainability-linked toolswhich aim to support the issuer’s decarbonisation strategy, through the achievement of ambitious pre-set objectives, while at the same time allowing greater flexibility on the use of proceeds also for those sectors where the transition is slower”.
The Assiom Forex Conference was also an opportunity to take stock of the topic of‘digital euro and on new methods of issuing and circulating financial instruments in digital form. Manuela CarraFinance Manager of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti recognized that “there is an adoption that is slow” and this is “related to the lack of regulation of digital assets by the Central Bank and tointeroperability between DLT infrastructures and traditional ones”. The issue of digital infrastructures is fundamental. – he remarked – The next step will be to support SMEs in accessing the capital market through these new technologies, favored in particular by the Italian fintech decree, allowing the issuing and transfer of digital financial instruments through blockchain technology.