It's got easy being green

摘要

Green finance used to sit on the sidelines - no longer. Originally the preserve of sovereigns and agencies, green bonds are now being issued by banks and companies such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Unilever. There have even been securitisa-tions of payment flows from solar panels and hybrid cars. Stefanie Linhardt reports on the growth of a new market on page 28. Our Islamic Financial Institutions Ranking is now in its eighth year and assets have increased at an average of 15% a year over that period. There are still many opportunities in the sector such as the Islamic financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance. James King and Joseph DiVanna introduce the rankings and discuss the topics in a special outbound report. Our other outbound report contains the results of The Banker's global private banking awards done jointly with sister publication Professional Wealth Management. Applications surged this year and there were 73 categories ranging from best global private bank to best private bank for innovation, as well as an award for Islamic services.