"IFFIm has an advantage in that its purpose is crystal clear"
"IFFIm has an advantage in that its purpose is crystal clear"
17 December 2024
Eila Kreivi
An interview with IFFIm Board Member Eila Kreivi.
An interview with IFFIm Board Member Eila Kreivi.
Eila Kreivi is a former Director of Capital Markets and Chief Sustainable Finance Advisor of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and currently acts as an independent sustainable finance expert and advisor. She brings to IFFIm years of experience in the sustainable finance markets and the international capital markets. In this interview she discusses how this experience can benefit IFFIm.
What do you think are the key trends and developments in the capital markets in the next 12 to 18 months and how should investors position themselves to take advantage of them?
Within the realm of the sustainable finance markets in major developed economies, I firmly believe that investors will remain keenly interested in how their money is utilised. Transparency and access to information are key drivers of this trend, and they operate in a one-way direction—once established, the demand for openness and accountability only intensifies.
But there are other challenges. When considering whether to prioritise sustainability over competitiveness or sustainability over security, it becomes clear that these elements are deeply interconnected. Rather than being mutually exclusive, they complement and reinforce one another, creating a foundation for long-term resilience and success. Looking forward, the nexus between environment and social will be underlined even more clearly. For example, we already know that climate change adaptation and resilience have a strong connection to health issues and vice versa.
The debate around regulation and reporting requirements will continue and we need to get our heads around the geographical differences in this respect.
Investors are the kingmakers in these markets. They decide what their funds will be used for and what kind of information they require. I believe they should increasingly consider the interconnections of the various vectors, not only focusing on aspects within reporting requirements, but also on the overall impact as a whole. The social sector is poised to grow in importance, yet it faces a significant challenge—a lack of clear impact definitions and frameworks. In that sense, an issuer like IFFIm has an advantage in that its purpose is crystal clear, and nobody would challenge its social purpose.
How can investors integrate a sustainable finance component into their portfolios? Are issuers like IFFIm attractive to sustainable investors?
Investors have multiple tools for this purpose. For example, in the climate and environmental space, one angle naturally is the set of regulatory requirements, depending on the investor’s location, and another is their voluntary commitments. But I would encourage a comprehensive, 360-degree analysis of an investment’s impact. This is a tall order of course, but one thing we have now substantially more of, thanks to increased reporting requirements, is data.
IFFIm is definitely an interesting issuer. The social side of markets is underdeveloped compared to environmental finance and lacks definitions and classifications. IFFIm’s purpose of use of funds is very clear and measurable. This is a rare treat and puts IFFIm in a very good place.
What kind of investment products or models do you think are particularly impactful?
I do not have a particular favourite product per se; the main thing is that the necessary investments get done, not how they are financed. Having said that, we cannot measure what we do not know, so the kind of finance instruments that are transparent about the use of funds and give regular and structured information about the impact will be winners. Investors ask questions; increasingly, one needs to be prepared to answer.
How do you think you can best contribute to IFFIm as a Board member?
I have barely started so we will see. But I will put to use all my experience in the sustainable finance markets and the international capital markets in general, in whichever way they can be of interest to IFFIm and as a consequence, to Gavi
Tell us about an accomplishment you are particularly proud of.
These questions are always tricky as in our world of finance and MDBs, it is hard to attribute successes to any one person. But I am proud of taking my former employer EIB to the forefront of sustainable capital markets – together with the team.
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