This series by the Climate Bonds Initiative examines the development of sustainable finance markets across ASEAN. It covers green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked debt instruments, alongside market structures, taxonomies, transition finance and policy developments supporting sustainable capital markets across the region.

This research investigates the demand for explainable AI in high-stakes credit settings. It finds that decision-makers strategically avoid explanations that reveal racial or gender bias to preserve moral wiggle room. Additionally, behavioural biases cause individuals to undervalue explanations even when they complement private information and improve decision accuracy.

This guidance series provides a comprehensive set of questions and answers regarding the application of the Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles, Sustainability Bond Guidelines, and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles. It serves as a benchmark series for the sustainable bond market, promoting transparency and standardisation across various financial debt instruments.

This report examines cyber risk stress testing for banks, contrasting system-focused and firm-focused approaches. Drawing on exercises by the Bank of England, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, and the European Central Bank, it outlines scenario design, operational resilience, and the role of disclosure in establishing best practices.

This research examines the tradeoff between lender profits and social impact using machine learning across three countries. It demonstrates that algorithmic targeting significantly boosts profit margins in South Africa and the Philippines but may reduce financial inclusion for women and low-income borrowers unless balanced strategies are implemented.

This report assesses ESG policies across five Ghanaian banks using international benchmarks. Results show low sustainability integration, particularly regarding climate change and transparency. It recommends adopting global frameworks, extending ESG accountability to lending portfolios, and improving standardised reporting to align the sector with international best practice.

Planet Tracker examines twenty-five banks' policies regarding agricultural methane emissions. Despite methane's high potency, no banks have specific reduction targets for this sector. Most policies focus solely on direct financing, ignoring facilitated debt which constitutes 96% of corporate funding, creating significant financial and regulatory risks for lenders.

This report examines how 24 European banks provided US$41.9 billion to gas power developers between 2021 and 2024. It highlights significant health impacts, including nearly 3,000 premature deaths in Europe, and warns that expanding gas infrastructure undermines global climate targets and exposes economies to price volatility.

This paper examines Kenya's 2016 interest rate regulation, which capped bank lending rates but exempted the digital platform M-Shwari. Using borrower-level administrative data and a structural model, the authors find that the M-Shwari carve-out preserved credit access for high-risk borrowers, while a uniform cap would have eliminated it entirely.

A joint Mistra FinBio and Svensk Kolinlagring report identifying three business cases linking biodiversity data to agricultural finance: baseline databanks for bank and insurance risk assessment, and an MRV system for biodiversity claims. It highlights the financing gap in regenerative agriculture and outlines potential biodiversity-linked financial products.

WBA's analysis of 400 major financial institutions finds that transition planning is emerging but capital allocation to low-carbon solutions and fossil fuel phase-out commitments remain marginal. Only two institutions demonstrate robust fossil-fuel restrictions, and low-carbon activities account for an average of just 2.7% of total financed activities globally.

The EBA's final report amends the 2016 Product Oversight and Governance (POG) Guidelines to incorporate ESG features and greenwashing risks for retail banking products. Key changes include requirements for manufacturers and distributors to prevent greenwashing, extended scope to non-bank consumer credit providers, and an application date of 11 January 2027.

This report by Shift distils insights from practitioner clinics for financial institutions on social performance measurement. It identifies key challenges and misperceptions, and provides eight practical tips for building more effective human rights due diligence measurement approaches, covering HRDD maturity assessment, theory of change, and quantification at scale.

This Shift briefing examines how financial institutions should approach human rights due diligence in relation to weapons and dual-use technologies. It identifies four key challenges, six anchors grounded in international humanitarian law, and six practical approaches to support responsible defence-related lending and investment decisions.

The APLMA Green and Sustainable Lending Microsite provides documentation, principles, guidelines, and market data for sustainable lending.

This study examines how biodiversity and ecosystem service loss affect sovereign creditworthiness across 23 countries. Using ecological-economic modelling, it finds that a partial ecosystem collapse could generate US$162 billion in additional annual debt servicing costs globally, highlighting that sovereign credit ratings are systematically underpricing nature-related financial risks.