Employing finance in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals: The promise and perils of catastrophe bonds

Can Wall Street save the world?
Monday, October 14, 2019 - 13:30

Can Wall Street save the world? The UN Sustainable Development Goals launched by the United Nations in 2015, present a formidable funding challenge. Financial innovation is one way through which resources can be secured, while also providing business opportunities. The insurance sector, in particular, has been at the forefront of such innovation, developing financial instruments to manage the flooding, fire, earthquake and storm risks that characterize an increasingly unstable world. A new paper by Dr Emmanuel Kypraios from Maynooth University’s School of Business, co-authored with Prof Dror Etzion (McGill University) and Prof Bernard Forgues (Emlyon business school) examines one such financial instrument – the catastrophe bond -, which transfers extreme risk from insurers and reinsurers to capital markets. This study explores the question of whether financial innovation should be trusted to serve public good. You can check their findings Article by Dr. Emmanuel Kypraois