As part of its takeaways series, DBRS Morningstar is publishing the below write-up about the key ideas discussed at one of the many Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) panels at the SFVegas conference that the Structured Finance Association (SFA) hosts. Moderated by DBRS Morningstar’s Chuck Weilamann, the panel gathered analytics providers, lawyers, and investors to discuss climate risk in securitized transactions. One of the panelists, David Sobul, is a member of the SFA’s task force dedicated to coming up with ESG standards and recommendations for disclosures. “I think that there is the perception out there that the task force is going to come up with a stamp to put on different products and say that these are ESG or sustainable products… That’s not the expectation at all,” clarified Sobul, Structured Finance & FICC ESG Legal Advisory Counsel at the Bank of America.

KBRA releases a recap of the SFVegas 2021 conference, held in Las Vegas at Aria Resort & Casino on October 3-6.

The mood among conference participants seemed upbeat as record new issue supply, strong investor demand, and sound credit fundamentals have placed the structured finance markets on solid footing well into 2022. Based on our discussions with issuers across each of the structured finance sectors, activity in primary markets is showing no signs of cooling off. We expect new issue supply to remain elevated through Q4 and well into 2022 as issuers take advantage of the current low interest rate environment to lock in attractive pricing.