Finance
Greenwashing, greenhushing and greenwishing: The new sustainable finance lingo | Investment Executive
“The majority of Canadians want new rules to clear out greenwashing because they’re frustrated by claims not being met with action,” said Julie Segal, senior program manager of climate finance with Environmental Defence Canada. “And a number of financial institutions also want clear rules on sustainable finance, so they can move more clearly in that direction.”
Greenwashing was one of the first terms coined in the sustainable finance discourse, but terms such as greenhushing and greenwishing have since been adopted.
Here’s what the terms mean and how some suggest putting an end to these practices.
Greenwashing
Greenwashing is the practice of making inflated or misleading claims about how environmentally friendly a company, organization or product is, said Yrjo Koskinen, a sustainable and transition finance professor with the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business.
“It’s not necessarily lying, but maybe making exaggerated claims about your environmental or social policies,” he said. “Companies have a tendency of spinning or putting their best foot forward. Everybody does that, right? So, it’s commonplace.”
As Koskinen explained, greenwashing was a niche issue until 2022, when cases began making more frequent headlines in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.
This includes the high-profile case of Keurig Canada reaching a $3-million settlement after the Competition Bureau found the company’s coffee pod recycling claims were false or misleading in certain cases.
In the U.S., DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG, agreed to pay US$25 million to settle charges over alleged greenwashing and deficient anti–money laundering controls at its mutual funds. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged the firm made “materially misleading statements” about the ESG investment processes used for certain actively managed mutual funds and separately managed accounts.
And earlier this year, the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities started action against 20 airlines for alleged misleading greenwashing practices, among other examples.
The Canadian government’s Bill C-59, which received royal assent on June 20, is one example of the recent crackdown on greenwashing.
The legislation requires companies to provide evidence to support their environmental claims. The government said doing so will “protect consumers, competitors and the proper functioning of the market against the harms of untested representations about a product’s benefits for protecting the environment or mitigating the effects of climate change.”
The legislation has received mixed reactions. It was cited by Pathways Alliance as the reason the group of oilsands companies decided to pull its online content. The group said the provision applies a standard “so vague as to lack meaning.”
Financial services regulators have also made progress in addressing greenwashing.
In March the Canadian Securities Administrators bolstered their guidance for investment funds and fund managers around ESG-related disclosure with the goal of increasing clarity and consistency in fund documentation and sales communications.
Also in March, the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board released its draft standards for climate-related risks and opportunities based on the International Sustainability Standards Board’s standards, but with proposed modifications. The consultation on the standards wrapped last month.
Over the past decade, firms such as Morningstar Sustainalytics have established frameworks for assessing companies’ exposure to industry-specific ESG risks and risk management.
Clark Barr, head of ESG methodology with Morningstar Sustainalytics, said the firm relies not on environmental promises from companies, but rather a thorough picture of their ESG policies, programs and performance.
“This is one of the ways we avoid greenwashing, because it’s not just having a policy in place or making a document. We want to see that [impact] all the way through to the performance level,” Barr said.
Greenhushing
Greenhushing is the practice of deliberately downplaying or hiding sustainability goals, Koskinen said, noting this concept is relatively new compared to greenwashing.
One reason companies may employ this practice is because they’re afraid of being accused of greenwashing, he said. They may think that “there’s always somebody who’s going to blame us — either we do too much or too little, but [we’re] never right.”
And companies can see how politicized the issue has become, Koskinen said.
In a January 2024 analysis from global climate consultancy South Pole, 81% of companies said that communicating their net-zero targets would be good for their bottom lines. However, 58% of the 1,400 companies surveyed — across 14 countries and 12 sectors — said communicating their climate action was now more difficult, and they were planning to decrease their level of external communications.
In the realm of finance, a March 2024 report from private and public equity markets data provider PitchBook Data Inc. suggests that some asset managers are pulling back from public ESG commitments out of fear of backlash, with fewer general partners making public commitments to ESG each quarter over the past few years via the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. Meanwhile, others are leaning in to ESG as a value creation and protection tool in the challenging macroeconomic environment, the report said.
Segal said the concept of greenhushing exists because in Canada sustainability reporting and disclosure standards are voluntary.
“The second something becomes mandatory, it’s no longer a decision that a business or financial institution has to make about whether they are talking about something,” she said.
Greenwishing
Less recognized than greenwashing and greenhushing is greenwishing, which has been described as a company making abstract wishes about “going green” or setting climate targets without taking action.
“Greenwishing sounds pretty much like greenwashing to me. It’s kind of inadvertent greenwashing,” Koskinen said.
Greenwishing is driven by the pressure to set ambitious sustainability goals, KPMG says on its website.
In an article for the Center for Corporate Reporting, which provides guidance on corporate reporting for companies in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, one of the founders of South Pole wrote that greenwishing “ensures that [a] company is seen as a climate leader in the eyes of the public, without running the risk of being accused of greenwashing.”
“After all, you did not make any binding commitments in the first place; you were only expressing your support for climate action and your wishes for a low-carbon future,” the article said.
The way forward
Industry watchers say Canada needs to move toward policies that support the transition to a net-zero economy.
Segal said the country needs to act with greater urgency, given how climate change could affect everything from people’s homes to their livelihoods and the economy.
“We’re seeing increasing climate-related disasters that affect both communities and investment,” Segal said. “Climate-aligned finance policy is the missing piece of Canada’s climate plan,” if it is to align with the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Segal pointed to Bill S-243, which would hold corporate directors to account for climate action and mandate climate action plans from financial institutions, among other things.
“Requiring the plans that support the commitment is really key in terms of transparency and accountability, and just helping ensure we move in the right direction,” she said.
Koskinen was pleased about Canada following the lead of other jurisdictions, such as Europe.
“Right now, with the new European law, if you advertise a certain ESG investment strategy, at least 80% of your assets have to follow that strategy. That’s a massive, tangible, measurable thing,” he said. “Until the passing of Bill C-59, there was no explicit law against greenwashing in Canada. It was activist groups trying to name and shame, or [the Office of Consumer Affairs] bringing cases against these companies.”
However, Koskinen said the new greenwashing regulations in Canada are “quite vague at the moment.” He said he hopes they will be clarified soon “so that companies have more certainty what is allowed and what is not.”
Barr, of Morningstar Sustainalytics, agrees Canada should look to the European Union as an example as it develops its sustainable finance policies, saying there’s a competitive reason for this as well.
“If you have this whole base of EU customers that are buying products from other businesses and they look at Canadian companies and say, ‘Oh, they’re not taking carbon seriously [so] I’d rather buy from this other company in France,’ that’s a lost opportunity for Canadian business,” he said.
But Barr and Koskinen acknowledged that moving toward a sustainable economy requires time.
Koskinen noted that Europe is less reliant on fossil fuels, whereas oil and gas are Canada’s top exports.
“It’s very difficult to decarbonize our energy system,” he said. “The economy doesn’t change overnight. The new firms are much quicker and agile to change, and some firms can change very fast, but [for] the large legacy companies, it’s going to take time.”
Barr shared a similar remark.
“Sometimes there’s criticism that the regulations aren’t strong enough, or they’re not going quick enough, but at least we’re seeing progress on them. And so it might not be ideal, it might not be perfect, but it is a journey,” he said. “It’s a bit of a marathon, not a sprint.”
Finance
Local M&A advisory firm Matrix acquired by banking giant Citizens Financial – Richmond BizSense
Matri x Capital Markets Group is now a division of Citizens Financial Group. (Image Courtesy Citizens Financial Group)
Matrix Capital Markets Group is used to helping businesses line up mergers and acquisitions.
For its latest transaction, the Richmond-based M&A advisory and investment banking firm was itself the subject of the deal.
Matrix was acquired last week by Rhode Island-based banking giant Citizens Financial Group.
Matrix, along with its nearly three dozen employees, including 20 in Richmond, are now operating as a division of Citizens, within the $226 billion bank’s investment banking arm, Citizens JMP Securities.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It involved an asset purchase that bought out Matrix’s 15 shareholders.
The deal ends Matrix’s 38-year run as an independent firm, a notable streak in an industry where consolidation of smaller firms into larger ones is common.
Matrix was founded in Richmond in 1988 by Scott Frayser and Jeff Moore and has since hit its stride by building a niche in handling deals for companies in the downstream energy and convenience retail sector.
The firm has been run in recent years by president Spencer Cavalier and Cedric Fortemps, co-head of the firm’s largest investment banking team.
Fortemps said Matrix began to search for a larger acquirer last year.
Cedric Fortemps
“The board decided to see if we could find a partner and a transaction that could build on what we’ve built thus far,” Fortemps said.
Matrix enlisted investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey to help in the search and negotiate on its behalf, along with the law firm Calfee as its legal advisor.
Fortemps said Citizen rose to the top of the pack of suitors in part due to JMP Securities’ track record of acquiring smaller firms like Matrix.
“They have acquired four other firms very similar to ours. Seeing the successes they had with those groups… the playbook is really to let the firms continue to operate the way they had,” Fortemps said.
Matrix’s Richmond office in the Gateway Plaza building downtown will continue to operate, as will its second office in Baltimore.
The Matrix brand will continue to be used for the time being but will eventually be phased out.
Fortemps said the firm’s success and particularly its growth in recent years has been fueled by its expertise in working deals for downstream energy clients – such as wholesale fuels distributors, propane and heating oil distributors – and convenience store and gas station chains.
Matrix’s rise in that sector began in 1997, when it hired Tom Kelso, who lived in Baltimore and owned a heating oil fuels distribution business. Kelso, who would eventually serve as the firm’s president prior to Cavalier, had a vision to launch an M&A firm for that industry.
“It took seven to eight years to grow it but eventually we were able to get a reputation of really high quality work and those successes on smaller transactions resulted in us being considered for larger deals,” Fortemps said.
Today, 21of the firm’s 26 investment bankers work on the team that handles deals for those industries. It controls about 40% market share for the M&A market for those sectors, Fortemps said.
The firm closes nearly two dozen transactions a year over the last five years and has closed 500 deals since its inception.
The typical value of its deals is more than $20 million, though the transactions it has closed over the last three years in the energy and convenience retail sectors have grown to $140 million per deal, Matrix said.
Its largest deal to date was closed last year, involving the $1.6 billion acquisition of convenience store chain Giant Eagle.
Matrix also works deals in other industries such as lubricants distribution, automotive after-market suppliers and car washes, as well as outdoor recreation and the marine industry.
After decades of representing buyers and sellers in M&A, Fortemps said the Citizens deal was a new experience for the Matrix team: being the target of the transaction, rather than the ones facilitating it.
“It certainly made me appreciate everything our clients have to go through on the other side of the table,” he said.
As the business side of team sports, such as football, becomes larger and more complex, the opportunities for banks to provide financing solutions for the individuals and institutions involved proliferate. At Deutsche Bank’s private bank, it sees considerable opportunities ahead.
With American and other non-UK investors/owners buying into UK
football teams, it has highlighted that handling the
financial side of sports is now a distinct asset class that even
those uninterested in sports should consider.
Deutsche Bank’s private banking arm certainly considers sports
finance a sufficiently large area to warrant a specialist
offering, as announced
a few days ago. The business focuses on Europe and the
US.
The financing business is led by Arjun Nagarkatti, who is the
head of the private bank for the US and Europe international
business. Deutsche
Bank has appointed Sowmya Kotha in London and Joshua Frank in
New York, who report to Adam Russ, head of wealth management and
business lending.
“Sport can be a local passion project. However, it is becoming
more of a legitimate asset class. Even a non-sports person should
look at sports,” Nagarkatti told WealthBriefing in a
meeting at the German bank’s London offices in the City. “These
are big businesses and a lot of people still don’t know how big
they are.”
Family offices/ultra HNW individuals are trying to take
a “more institutional” approach to transacting in sports
teams, he said.
Setting up such a business feeds into the specialist lending and
financial advisory work that Deutsche has discussed
with this publication in recent months. (See
an example here – via Hong Kong.) This work uses the
combined private bank/investment banking connections where
private clients will also have operating business concerns.
The sports financing business shows that this area is not simply
a private banking niche. Rival Citigroup, for example,
spoke to this news service in 2025 about its work with
ultra-wealthy people wanting to buy, sell and run sports teams.
Our US correspondent recently wrote about opportunities for
wealth management arising from changes in college
sports.
The expanded capability at Deutsche on the sports side is
“significant for the bank,” Nagarkatti said. “It is a core focus
for us.”
UHNW sports owners/potential owners tend to be ideal clients –
they are internationally minded, want advice and guidance on
financial/personal wealth matters, he continued. “This is a big
opportunity for us and it is a consistent connection we have had
with clients, and we have been doing this for 10 to 15
years.”
Deutsche is initially concentrating on the English Premier
League. As its US franchise has expanded, this has led to
financing across all four major US sports leagues: National
Football League; Major League Baseball; National Basketball
Association, and National Hockey League.
Mention of cross-border owners of clubs leads to potential owners
of, say, a UK football club needing to understand that when
they buy a team, they’re also buying into hopes and dreams.
Owners raise their heads above a parapet – not always a fun
experience.
“You become a public figure,” Nagarkatti said.
One example that springs to mind is Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the
billionaire founder of INEOS, the chemical producer who took
a 27.7 per cent stake in Manchester United more than a year
ago. While well known in business circles before buying into the
“Red Devils” –
one of the most famous sports institutions in the world – his
profile has risen since, with every comment – controversial or
otherwise – analysed, not always kindly.
American owners of teams have to adjust to the risk, for example
when a football (soccer) team gets relegated, Nagarkatti
said. Anyone looking to own a club must understand risks,
including how their public profile, assuming they were very
private people, rises rapidly, and in ways that are not always
comfortable if a team has problems, he said.
There is a need for realism.
“When you buy these top assets, you must spend time and work them
and increase their value. You must be prepared to invest time,
such as on the team, stadiums, facilities,” Nagarkatti said. “It
is like buying a hotel. You cannot just sit there and think it
will go up in value by 10 times.”
For the wealth management industry in general, the business of
sports teams, as well as the individual financial affairs of
sportsmen and women, has become a distinct – and large –
specialism. For example, the Rockefeller Global Family Office has
experts who look after athletes and entertainers. Other firms
that have expertise in and around sports include Carnegie Private
Wealth, for example, and Merrill Lynch Management. In the UK, the
private banking group Coutts has a sports, media and
entertainment division for its wealthy clients. Standard
Chartered, the UK-listed bank with a significant presence in
Asia, has launched a new alternative fund focused on sports for
ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients under its Global
Private Bank. Standard Chartered is a sponsor of Liverpool
FC.
Deutsche Bank announced 2025 full-year and fourth-quarter
financial results here.
Australians now need a record amount of superannuation to afford a comfortable retirement, and one group is still lagging significantly behind. Women are approaching retirement with tens of thousands of dollars less in superannuation than men, but there are moves that can be made now to help close the gap.
By the age of 40 to 44, men have a median super balance of $108,344, compared to women with $79,445 – a gap of nearly $30,000. This gap peaks in the 55 to 59 age range, where men have $202,584 on average and women $140,662 – a difference of more than $60,000.
AustralianSuper deputy chief executive and chief member officer Rose Kerlin told Yahoo Finance while we’ve seen some improvements over time, the super gender gap is “still very real” and becomes the most obvious as women approached retirement.
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“A big part of the gap comes down to caregiving and disparities in pay. When women take time out of the workforce or move into part-time roles to care for children or family members, their super takes a hit, and that impact compounds year after year,” she said.
This gap is particularly worrying now that a single homeowner aged 67 needs a lump sum of $630,000, up from $595,000, to achieve a comfortable retirement. Couple homeowners need a balance of $730,000 in super, which is up from $690,000.
In contrast, the latest ATO data shows men at or approaching retirement at 60 to 64 have a median balance of $219,73, while women have $163,218.
The government has flagged reforms to help address the gap. Since July last year, superannuation has been paid on government parental leave payments.
From July next year, the Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset (LISTO) income threshold will increase from $37,000 to $45,000 to align with the top of the second income-tax bracket. The maximum LISTO payment will increase from $500 to $810.
While policy reform is important, Kerlin said there were also things women could do now to feel more on top of their super and more confident about where they’re headed.
“Small actions today can help build greater confidence and security for the years ahead,” she said.
One action could be making additional contributions, even small ones, whenever possible, as this could make a big difference over time.
AustralianSuper’s modelling found that someone who made after-tax contributions of $600 annually between the ages of 35 to 39 and met the eligibility criteria for the government’s co-contribution of $300 each year could retire with $9,000 more.
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