ESG and Of Interest News
Explainer: Five Megatrends Shaping the Rise of Nonbank Finance
September 27, 2025--Half of all financial assets worldwide are now held and intermediated by companies that are not classified and regulated as banks
The global financial crisis of 2008 froze the financial system. Banks pulled back credit, families tightened their belts and companies laid off workers. It was a frightening time for everyone, and an extremely difficult moment for the financial services industry.
Today, the landscape of finance is quite different. Different types of investors and firms are providing businesses, consumers and governments with credit and liquidity. More than a billion more people have access to credit thanks largely to newer tech-based lenders. Families also have more options to finance purchases and to diversify retirement portfolios. Equity, fixed income, and derivatives markets have all seen strong growth.
But these developments have not been driven by banks. Instead, it is "nonbank" financial institutions that have stepped up, increasing their share of global credit and finance from 43 percent during the 2008 crisis to nearly 50 percent by 2023, our most recent data show.
This is a watershed moment: half of all financial services worldwide are now offered by companies that are not classified and regulated as banks.
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Source: IMF.org
The OECD Index of Digital Trade Integration and Openness (INDIGO)
September 12, 2025-Policy Trends up to 2025
Key messages
Global discussions on digital trade are in their early stages but are rapidly gaining momentum. The world economy is just 8.5% of the way towards what could be considered full global digital trade integration and openness. Recent years have seen an increase in the diversity of the issues covered in international discussions,largely due to digital trade provisions in trade agreements and digital economy agreements.
While bilateral digital trade discussions are expanding,they only represent 10% of existing digital trade integration and openness. At present,global digital trade integration and openness remains largely driven by WTO initiatives which incorporate more countries.
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Source: oecd.org
Multilateral development banks hit record $137 billion in climate finance, driving sustainable development worldwide
September 9, 2025-New report shows climate finance by multilateral development banks rose 10% in 2024 compared with previous year.
MDBs' climate finance for low- and middle-income economies increased 14% to more than $85 billion.
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) delivered a record $137 billion in global climate finance last year-a 10% increase that underscores the growing scale of international climate investment. The majority of this funding flowed to low-and middle-income economies, according to a report published today by the European Investment Bank (EIB) with participation from other MDBs, including the African Development Bank Group.
In addition, MDBs mobilized $134 billion in private finance for climate action in 2024, a 33% increase from the year earlier, according to 2024 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks' Climate Finance.
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Source: afdb.org
Stablecoins, Tokens, and Global Dominance
September 9, 2025-Technology is reshaping capital flows and currency dominance; data integrity is essential for financial stability
Technology is poised to shake up the international monetary and financial system. How that happens depends on whether technologies are shaped by the public sector or the private sector sets standards first. Also at play are regulations, international cooperation, and the resilience of new technologies to cyber risk.
The effects on capital flows are hard to assess, but they could have a surprisingly large impact on fiscal accounts, geoeconomic fragmentation, exchange rate volatility, and the internationalization of major currencies.
Stablecoins are one of the most relevant innovations, increasingly embraced amid US introduction of a legal framework designed to boost adoption and solidify the dollar's role as the main international currency. Tokenization plays a role as well. It is the process of recording claims on assets that exist on a traditional ledger-or native assets (that is, only issued digitally)-on a programmable platform, where they can be transferred (Agur and others 2025).
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Source: imf.org
Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds
August 28, 2025--Scientists say 'shocking' discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout
The collapse of a critical Atlantic current can no longer be considered a low-likelihood event,a study has concluded,making deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions even more urgent to avoid the catastrophic impact.
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a major part of the global climate system. It brings sun-warmed tropical water to Europe and the Arctic,where it cools and sinks to form a deep return current. The Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis.
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Source: theguardian.com
Why investing in Southern Africa's critical minerals is key for the global energy transition
August 6, 2025--The energy transition has turbocharged the global demand for minerals.
The Southern Africa region holds nearly a third of the world's critical mineral reserves.
The region has an opportunity to capture more value from its mineral resources, enhance its role in the global energy transition and unlock greater economic benefits.
The demand for critical minerals, essential for wind turbines, batteries and solar panels, has surged as the energy transition gains momentum.
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Source: weforum.org
World Cannot Recycle Its Way Out of Plastics Crisis, Report Warns
August 4, 2025--The 8 billion tons of plastic waste that have amassed on Earth pose a grave and growing danger to human health, according to a new report published in the leading medical journal The Lancet. Ahead of a U.N. conference on plastic pollution, authors warn that countries urgently need to cut production.
The world churns out more than 200 times as much plastic today as it did in 1950, and production is only rising. Microscopic bits of plastic waste have been found nearly everywhere, from the bottom of the sea to the clouds over Mount Fuji, as well as in the food we eat, water we drink, and air we breathe. Scientists have found microplastics in human lungs, brains, and bone marrow, among other organs, as well as in blood, semen, and breast milk.
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Source: yale.edu
The Brain Economy: The New New Thing
August 2, 2025--At a recent gathering of the G7 conference goers were told the future of economic growth depends on optimizing ‘brain capital,' a term that encompasses brain health and cognitive, emotional, and social skills.
The brain economy, the idea that communities, societies, and countries contribute to economic growth and stability through their collective brainpower, is the New New Thing and in the coming months governments and companies are likely to hear a lot more about it.
The brain -the body's most vital organ, regulating all the systems needed for basic survival, cognition, and social/emotional well-being - is increasingly under threat from a variety of sources including rising levels of cognitive decline in ageing populations, increasing chronic disease, negative impacts from climate change and unhealthy environments, and escalating levels of mental health challenges across major life phases. In fact, more than 3 billion people worldwide are living with a neurological condition at a cost of $5 trillion per year to the global economy and neurological conditions are the number one leading cause of disease burden worldwide.
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Source: theinnovator.news/
New Standards for Economic Data Aim to Sharpen View of Global Economy
July 31, 2025--The updated System of National Accounts better captures digitalization, intangible assets, and global production-helping governments support growth, jobs, and investment
The cornerstones of our digital world-from smartphone apps to new digital assets and artificial intelligence tools-didn't exist back in 2008, the last time the world's statistical community overhauled its approach to standardizing how countries measure the economy.
Now, an updated System of National Accounts-the global standard for producing measures of economic activity-more fully incorporates emerging technologies, digital services, and intangible assets.
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Source: imf.org
Ranked: 25 Richest Countries in the World, by Three Metrics
July 29, 2025--Key Takeaways
Luxembourg's immense GDP per capita ($141K) masks the fact that much of it is generated by non-residents who commute in to work.
Qatar's oil windfall lifts GDP per capita ($72K) but that hasn't translated into broader wealth.
English-speaking countries translate middling GDP per capita into high median wealth through property ownership and strong pension systems.
Generating national wealth and distributing it to people are distinctly different economic challenges.
Previously when we've covered 25 richest countries, we did so by GDP per capita alone. As a result, tiny states and global city-states tended to dominate the top of the rankings.
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Source: visualcapitalist.com
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