Sustainable financing is gaining ground in corporate Russia as firms look to improve their environmental, social and governance policies ‒ but can the country’s notorious polluters really go green?

When RBS floated Citizens Financial in 2014, it was the biggest bank IPO since the financial crisis and investors were sceptical of its prospects ‒ five years on and RoE and EPS have doubled, the stock trades at a premium, and the bank has shown it can compete with bigger US banks and non-banks alike.

Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to make efforts more effective.

Euromoney has drawn up six recommendations for the sustainable finance sector, based on the views of 20 experts in the field.

The second of our six proposals to make sustainable finance work is for firms to mandate the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Leading bankers in sustainable finance fear that, despite the advances and the rhetoric, the industry is not moving quickly enough.

How can sustainable finance be moved into the mainstream and made to work better? The fifth of our six recommendations is to target deforestation reduction.

Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to bring about real progress.

What needs to happen for sustainability to be adopted by mainstream finance and move beyond the realm of pledges, panels and press releases? The first of our six recommendations is for banks to sign up to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB).

A $30 billion bond from AbbVie has given US dollar investment-grade corporate debt volumes a boost late in the year, but net issuance is down and the outlook is mixed.

It was a bold call to launch a specialist credit business in Asia in 2009, but SC Lowy celebrates its 10th birthday as an established figure in distressed debt and high yield not just at home but also increasingly in Europe.

There were times in the late 1970s and 1980s when Japan dominated entire editions of Euromoney.

The desire to bring secondary-market trading to illiquid private equity is growing.

The failure of the We Company IPO and the poor performance of Uber and Lyft suggest that investment banks have lost their ability to price IPOs.

The SoFi co-founder’s second act involves eliminating ‘rent seekers’ from the capital markets.

Trade finance and cash management may have come under the spotlight in the last 10 years since the financial crash, but these are businesses that Euromoney has covered since launch, especially focusing on how technology has the potential to transform the sector.

VTB has long lagged state-owned rival Sberbank in terms of profitability, but with sanctions limiting access to capital the pressure is on to close the gap – chairman Andrey Kostin explains why digital transformation and aggressive retail growth hold the key to success for Russia’s second-largest lender.

The EMEA treasury director at CBRE says: 'Treasury can be truly transformed by introducing technology.'

The Latin American nation has gone all-out to rebuild its natural environment over the last three decades, with great results – now it needs the rest of the world to pay attention.

The Seychelles was the first country to issue a debt-for-nature swap to protect its marine environment; it was also the first to issue a blue bond, raising capital to finance sustainable marine and ocean-related projects.

Using a model of up-front financing for large one-off projects, project finance for permanence may be the mechanism that can help reach the goal of 50% of the planet’s natural areas being protected in perpetuity.

Tiny Bhutan has a claim to fame as the first and only country that can claim to be not only carbon neutral but dramatically carbon negative.

The rhino impact bond has sparked excitement that financial tools can play a role in helping Africa conserve its wildlife.

Deforestation – and the cattle farming that largely drives it – has caught the world’s attention.

Climate is no longer the only risk in town: thanks to a loud call from the scientific community, nature has finally been given a seat at the table with finance ministers, regulators and central bank governors.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean up water supplies, prevent the loss of biodiversity, mitigate fire and flood risk and meet the nutritional requirements of a growing population the world must improve its regenerative and sustainable agricultural practices – new tools and support from the financial services industry are needed to fund that transition.

Carbon markets, particularly offsets, are shaking off their past and becoming a vital instrument for reaching CO2 reduction goals, protecting and conserving biodiversity at scale, as well as meeting many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Fintechs, banks and government are working together to build clever new digital services and boost financial inclusion in a country where millions are unbanked.

The country’s risk scores have lagged its central European neighbours since the financial crisis.

Singapore’s emergence as a global financial hub is no accident, and has not happened overnight.

One country showed the way forward for Latin American sovereigns nearly 35 years ago.

Some uncomfortable conclusions arise from a close look at Euromoney’s country risk data for Asia since 1982.

In Africa, the more democratic a country is, the higher its Euromoney Country Risk score, but as the continent’s ECR grade stalls, African countries are diverging – politically and economically.

Systemic, contagious sovereign crises seem to have been consigned to history.

Automation and artificial intelligence are transforming the payments industry into one of the most dynamic sectors of transaction banking.

When the Philippines needed a new central bank governor earlier this year, no one expected the president to pick an outsider for the job.

After the challenges of Asian and global financial crises and the 1MDB scandal, Zeti Akhtar Aziz is back in the top echelons of Malaysian influence again.

It’s not long ago that Kurdistan was on the brink of accessing the international markets.

When Mauricio Macri won the last presidential election in 2015, the future for Argentina’s banks looked rosy: a spate of international debt and equity deals confirmed the optimism.

Israel has become one of the world’s most important fintech hubs, attracting millions in investment from some of the biggest global brands and venture capital funds.

Bradesco’s digital bank start-up has grown rapidly and is already looking to leave the bank’s existing corporate structure.

While Euromoney turns 50 this year, our first big survey was launched 40 years ago – and to this day, the FX survey remains the benchmark for the foreign exchange industry.

UOB is run by three generations of the Wee family, with a fourth in the wings.

Investors should focus on collection and recycling to have the greatest impact in targeting plastic waste.

JPMorgan today dominates the global corporate and investment banking landscape.

Bankers pitching for Euromoney awards just can’t help themselves – year after year, the jargon gets more impenetrable, the league tables more inventive and the logistics more unreliable.

Almost 10 years into his role as chief executive of Singapore-based DBS, Piyush Gupta has spent the last six of them on a mission to make an institution that looks more like a tech company than a bank.

Arthur Hayes felt the golden days of finance had gone by the time he got started in investment banking in Hong Kong – until cryptocurrency gave him the opportunity to establish platform BitMEX, now one of the most successful bitcoin exchanges in the world.

Crossing bridges before you come to them.

As Euromoney turns 50, we review the agendas of the some of the top CEOs in banking.

Europe can build a more integrated system.

Lead by example.

The father of international finance in the 1960s.

For Euromoney's 50th anniversary issue, we picked out the six individual bankers that we believe define each of the decades of Euromoney’s existence.

The scourge of short termism.

The first global banker, from the 1970s.

Everyone wants to buy green bonds but many issuers, concerned about cost and complexity, don’t want to sell them.

Master of reinvention.

Regulate big tech or deregulate banks.

AML needs a European solution.

The technology pioneer of the 1980s.

Banking is a secondary need.

If you missed the US train, catch the one in China.

Efficient banks will win the digital race.

The best banking and capital-markets coverage deserves the best covers – here's a small selection of the most memorable from the past few decades.

The giant of European banking in the 1990s.

Usefulness as necessity.

Banks must continuously adapt.

People rise to the top of the agenda.

Master of the merger of the 2000s.