An occasion for discussing both the causes and implications of recent financial and atmospheric events and other related issues at the 18th International Conference on Credit Risk Evaluation Designed for Institutional Targeting in Finance. Opening Remarks by Carlo Carraro (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice & CMCC, Programme Chair).

On September 26-27, 2019, the 18th International Conference on Credit Risk Evaluation Designed for Institutional Targeting in finance will bring together academics, practitioners and PhD students working in the area of risk management. The conference this year focuses on Assessing and Managing Climate Change Risk: Opportunities for Financial Institutions and will provide an opportunity for participants engaged in research at the forefront of this area to discuss both the causes and implications of recent financial and atmospheric events and may, in turn, suggest fruitful directions for future research. The Conference is the eighteenth of a series dedicated to various aspects of credit risk.

The co-sponsors of the Conference are GRETA Associati (Venice, Italy), European DataWarehouse (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Intesa Sanpaolo (Milan, Italy) and S&P Global Market Intelligence (London, UK). The Conference is organised under the auspices of the Department of Economics of the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, ABI – Italian Banking Association, AIAF – Associazione Italiana per l’Analisi Finanziaria(Milan, Italy) and Joint Research Center, European Commission (Ispra, Italy).

Carlo Carraro (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice & CMCC, EAERE President, Programme Chair) will open the CREDIT2019 Conference and chair the Climate Risk and Equity Markets Session on September 26, 2019. He will also take part in the Panel Session Practice “Climate Change Risk: A Practitioners’ View” on September 27, 2019.

The adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development marks a historical international commitment to the objective of a more sustainable economy and society. How to mobilise the necessary financing for green and sustainable investments is thus a primary need.

Meanwhile, Regulators are discussing about a green-supporting or a brown-penalising factor since they want to make sure financial institutions are prepared. It is to find the way to support sustainable investments but it is primarily a discussion about credit risk.

The banking and insurance industries and more in general the financial sector has to develop new asset management strategies and to adjust their credit allocation practices to cope with these new challenges and take advantage of the new opportunities. All these changes call for a substantial amount of research to improve the knowledge of the mechanisms at play and to design adapted policy tools.

The organizers encourage submissions of papers on any topic within the overall theme of the conference and in the following areas in particular:

• Analysis of climate change effects on companies’ creditworthiness, in terms of risk exposure and possible loss of business continuity; understanding on how to integrate the environmental risk and opportunities of banks’ or insurers’ counterparties in the credit process
• Development of metrics for climate-related financial risks and investments opportunities; definition of an EU environmental and climate change (ECC) risk categorising system by economic sectors/sub-sectors for ECC screening to provide a sound and reliable basis for setting high-level policies for credit protection and allocation
• Analysis of the climate change impact on the insurance sector and on the development of non-life and reinsurance products for the corporate and retail segments
• Analysis of climate-aligned developments in the financial markets (e.g. green bonds) and opportunities for financial institutions in fostering the low-carbon transition
• Transmission channels of climate-related shocks from the real economy to financial institutions’ portfolios and amplification mechanisms of climate-related shocks through credit chains
• Assessment of the potential impact of green financial policies, including climate-aligned monetary policies and macroprudential regulation
• Big data and artificial intelligence to assess and manage the corporate exposures to climate change factors.

Take a look at the programme.