Latest news with #riskmanagement
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Blackstone Just Bought $2 Billion in Real Estate Loans--Here's Why It Matters Now
After completing its merger with Sandy Spring Bancorp in April, Atlantic Union Bankshares (NYSE:AUB) wasted no time reshaping its balance sheet. This week, the Richmond-based bank sold roughly $2 billion worth of performing commercial real estate loansoriginally acquired from Sandy Springto Blackstone (NYSE:BX), via its real estate debt platform BREDS. The loans had already been earmarked for sale as of April 1 and were ultimately priced in the low 90s to par. Atlantic Union will continue servicing the customers, while using the sale proceeds to pay down expensive funding sources and boost its securities portfolio. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with BX. For Atlantic Union, this is all about simplification and risk management. CEO John Asbury called the transaction a clean execution that supports future growth and reduces CRE exposurekey for post-merger integration. Blackstone, meanwhile, sees another opportunity to expand its growing footprint in real estate credit. The $76 billion BREDS platform has now added $20 billion in CRE loan purchases over the past two years, including chunks of the failed Signature Bank portfolio and a $1 billion haul from Germany's PBB. Tim Johnson, head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, said this deal highlights the firm's ability to craft bespoke solutions for banks offloading real estate risk. With rising rates and shifting valuations still pressuring CRE portfolios, private capital is stepping in aggressivelyand at discounted pricing. For Blackstone, that could mean solid upside. For regional banks like Atlantic Union, it's a way to stay liquid and lean while the dust settles. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data


Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Reframing Climate Action: From Managing Risk To Building Resilience
TOPSHOT - Waves break over a sea wall at Cape Town harbour on June 7, 2017, as an intense storm hits ... More South Africa's west coast. - The ferocious storm killed eight people as it pummelled South Africa's west coast on Wednesday, forcing the closure of Cape Town harbour, triggering flash floods and causing extensive damage, authorities said. The weather system which struck on June 6 has damaged buildings, felled trees, left 46,000 homes without electricity and caused travel chaos as flights and rail services were hit by gale-force winds and flooding. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP) (Photo by RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images) For decades, efforts across the climate, conservation and development spheres have shared a common aim: to protect people and ecosystems from harm. Over time, as environmental understanding advanced and financial markets became more engaged, risk management has emerged as a dominant framework shaping decisions. Risk proved appealing because it could be measured. Financial actors could quantify, price, hedge, insure, or "de-risk" it to attract private capital. From microinsurance pilots to sovereign catastrophe bonds, risk became the operative language of climate action. Policymakers and institutions built models, systems, and instruments, like early warning networks and climate bonds, around the logic of reducing or transferring risk. But this framing is increasingly inadequate. As the world faces cascading climate, geopolitical, health, and economic shocks, managing risk alone is no longer enough. Nowhere is this more evident than in adaptation, where the gap between needs and funding is starkest. The shift required is clear: resilience, not risk avoidance, must become the organizing principle. From Morality to Markets to Resilience More recently, the dominant framing has shifted toward financial risk and market efficiency, turning climate risk into something to price and disclose, fueling ESG based indices and green bonds. While these tools mobilized capital, they have largely prioritized large-scale mitigation over local adaptation. Resilience now offers a necessary correction to a system overly focused on the avoidance of risk rather than regeneration. It's not a soft add-on but a central strategy for stability and prosperity. Community-driven, locally led adaptation has proven more effective and durable, rooted in lived experience and local knowledge. Yet these initiatives remain sidelined and underfunded by conventional finance models. 'We fundamentally need to change the narrative from aid to empowering people, families, communities and small firms everywhere… to make the decisions for themselves and to get access to the funding they need to make those decisions,' said Sophie Sirtaine, CEO of CGAP, at the launch of Unlocking Critical Finance for Climate and Economic Resilience, a report by The Earthshot Prize with contributions from CGAP and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and CGAP. Today's climate finance system focuses heavily on minimizing downside risk, especially for investors. This often results in shifting risk from the private sector to public actors, rather than addressing underlying vulnerabilities. In adaptation finance, this contradiction is sharp: while mitigation absorbs the majority of global climate capital, adaptation receives just 10%, and less than 17% of that reaches the local level. 'Communities most vulnerable to climate impacts are often the least economically secure, and yet remain largely overlooked by private and commercial capital,' said Mehmaz Ghojeh, head of strategic partnerships at Earthshot. Financial norms that emphasize scalability, formal structures, and returns filter out many high-impact, locally led solutions. Even when these efforts are funded, they are often forced to fit into mitigation-style models that overlook their broader public benefits. Despite their impact, investments in resilience, from disaster preparedness to ecosystem restoration, receive no credit in financial ratings or capital markets. As Guido Schmidt-Traub, partner at Systemiq and advisor to Brazil's COP30 presidency, asked at a London Climate Week event on the triple dividend of resilience: 'Why does climate risk lower a country's credit rating, but resilience investment doesn't improve it?' The Unlocking Critical Finance report draws on more than 2,200 innovations nominated to The Earthshot Prize, distilling lessons from a diverse range of locally led, commercially viable, and socially inclusive solutions. One example is Coast 4C in the Philippines, which helps seaweed farmers increase yields while restoring degraded marine ecosystems. The program protects over 5,800 hectares of coastline, cuts 11,200 tonnes of CO₂e annually, and supports nearly 9,000 people—82% of them women—with increased income and access to finance. These are not edge cases but viable models. What unites them is not scale or profitability but local agency, ownership, design, and delivery by the communities who understand the challenges best. As Ghojeh makes clear: 'This is just one of many examples showing that locally-led and commercially viable models are already transforming climate-vulnerable economies.' 'Many of these solutions are led by micro and small enterprises in climate-vulnerable economies, who understand the challenges deeply,' added Payal Dalal, Executive Vice President at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. Perhaps the greatest flaw in the risk narrative is its portrayal of vulnerable communities as passive recipients of aid. A resilience approach instead sees them as active protagonists, designing, implementing, and scaling solutions that suit their context. It is increasingly clear that effective adaptation won't scale through traditional government programs or risk-averse financial systems. 'We are still asking how to survive the next crisis. But the real question is, how do we thrive despite it?' said Schmidt-Traub. To truly reframe climate action, we must ask not only 'What could go wrong?' but 'What must go right for people to flourish?' Building a Resilience-Centered Future As Ghojeh points out the solutions already exist, from Coast 4C and Frontier Markets in India to RISCO's digital climate risk tools. What's missing is a system that can identify, fund, and scale them. That requires moving beyond ESG checklists and adopting tools that value long-term resilience outcomes. It means supporting intermediaries that bridge global capital and local innovators. We need financing tools fit for vulnerable contexts, ones that work where traditional systems fail. As Ghojeh puts it: 'The innovations exist. The capital exists. Now is the time to connect the two and scale the solutions that are already building a better future.' The economic rationale is compelling. According to recent research from the World Resources Institue, every $1 invested in resilience could generate 10x return, from avoided losses to increased productivity and social stability. Locally led adaptation delivers what experts call 'triple dividends': reduced climate risk, economic returns, and broader development gains. Achieving that future demands more than new metrics, it requires a mindset shift. One that puts resilience, not risk, at the heart of how we act, invest, and govern.

Finextra
a day ago
- Business
- Finextra
Clearspeed raises $60m for voice-based risk assessment tech
Clearspeed, the global leader in voice-based risk assessment technology, today announced it has secured $60 million in Series D funding, bringing the company's total funding to $110 million. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. The round was led by Align Private Capital, with participation from IronGate Capital Advisors, Bravo Victor Venture Capital, and KBW Ventures. General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) also joined as a multi-round investor. In addition to the raise, the company will add Anna Nekoranec, Co-Founder and CEO of Align Private Capital, to Clearspeed's Board of Directors. Nekoranec said, 'Clearspeed has demonstrated true dual-use potential—with scalable commercial results and meaningful impact in high-stakes environments. It's rare to see a solution that can reduce fraud, mitigate security threats, and save significant costs without creating friction for the end user. This is the innovation needed to build smarter, more human-centered systems of trust.' In insurance, Clearspeed consistently yields more than 30X return on investment by assessing risk early in the claims and underwriting process – driving faster, more accurate decisions that improve customer outcomes, including cutting claims handling time in half and increasing immediate payments to customers by 40%. Zurich Insurance—a global multi-line insurer serving 75 million customers across 200+ countries—has significantly accelerated claims payment to customers where they've implemented Clearspeed, allowing them to provide more immediate relief in moments of need. 'We see Clearspeed as a powerful complement to an insurer's multi-layered global risk strategy—offering a streamlined, trust-building experience for customers while helping to make more confident decisions and combat increasingly complex fraud,' said Scott Clayton, Head of Claims Fraud, Zurich Insurance. Government stakeholders increasingly view Clearspeed's commercial success as critical to combating fraud, waste, and abuse—and advancing national security priorities such as countering threat financing, drug testing, personnel vetting, and partner force screening. Agencies using Clearspeed have seen a 95% reduction in vetting cycle time and a 65% drop in investigation costs. 'As security threats evolve, so must the solutions designed to counter them,' said private investor General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.), former CIA Director and Commander of U.S. Central Command. 'Clearspeed's AI-enabled voice analytics delivers outsized value for personnel vetting, insider threat mitigation, and enterprise security—where building trust quickly is paramount.' 'This investment propels Clearspeed into a bold new chapter,' said Alex Martin, Co-Founder and CEO of Clearspeed. 'We're doubling down on the markets where trust and speed matter most—government, defense, insurance, banking—and expanding globally to meet the growing demand for secure, high-integrity screening. We're investing in our teams, accelerating innovation, and ensuring our technology stays ahead—not just to grow, but to help organizations worldwide realize the strategic advantage of rapidly establishing trust.'


Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg Masters In Business: Velina Peneva
Barry speaks with Velina Peneva, group chief investment officer at Swiss Re about the business of reinsurance, managing risk, her career path and more. Peneva started her career at Bain & Company in 1998 and later became Partner in 2011. While she was there, she worked with fund managers and investors, became a leader in the private equity practice in Zurich and became a member of the firm's global investment committee. Peneva joined Swiss Re in 2017, becoming co-head of client solutions & analytics, before being named Group Chief Investment Office and member of the Group Executive Comittee in 2023.


Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Prince Khaled Backs Major US Risk Assessment Company in Series D Round
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed's KBW Ventures has joined a Series D round of US$60 million for Clearspeed, a San Diego-headquartered global voice-based risk assessment technology provider. The round was led by Align Private Capital, with participation from IronGate Capital Advisors, Bravo Victor Venture Capital in addition to KBW Ventures. It brings the company's total funding to US$110 million. General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) former CIA Director and Commander of U.S. Central Command, also joined as a multi-round investor. "Clearspeed has demonstrated true dual-use potential—with scalable commercial results and meaningful impact in high-stakes environments," Nekoranec said. It's rare to see a solution that can reduce fraud, mitigate security threats, and save significant costs without creating friction for the end user. This is the innovation needed to build smarter, more human-centered systems of trust." In insurance, Clearspeed consistently yields more than 30X return on investment by assessing risk early in the claims and underwriting process - driving faster, more accurate decisions that improve customer outcomes, including cutting claims handling time in half and increasing immediate payments to customers by 40%. Zurich Insurance—a global multi-line insurer serving 75 million customers across 200+ countries—has significantly accelerated claims payment to customers where they've implemented Clearspeed, allowing them to provide more immediate relief in moments of need. "We see Clearspeed as a powerful complement to an insurer's multi-layered global risk strategy—offering a streamlined, trust-building experience for customers while helping to make more confident decisions and combat increasingly complex fraud," said Scott Clayton, Head of Claims Fraud, Zurich Insurance. The Clearspeed team. Government stakeholders increasingly view Clearspeed's commercial success as critical to combating fraud, waste, and abuse—and advancing national security priorities such as countering threat financing, drug testing, personnel vetting, and partner force screening. Agencies using Clearspeed have seen a 95% reduction in vetting cycle time and a 65% drop in investigation costs. "As security threats evolve, so must the solutions designed to counter them," said General Petraeus (US Army, Ret.). "Clearspeed's AI-enabled voice analytics delivers outsized value for personnel vetting, insider threat mitigation, and enterprise security—where building trust quickly is paramount." "This investment propels Clearspeed into a bold new chapter," said Alex Martin, co-founder and CEO of Clearspeed. "We're doubling down on the markets where trust and speed matter most—government, defense, insurance, banking—and expanding globally to meet the growing demand for secure, high-integrity screening. We're investing in our teams, accelerating innovation, and ensuring our technology stays ahead—not just to grow, but to help organizations worldwide realize the strategic advantage of rapidly establishing trust."