Baringa Partners

Systemic shortcomings in current practices suggest a need for stronger regulatory guidance, says Emily Farrimond, Partner, ESG & Sustainability Lead at Baringa Partners. Inconsistency and a lack of transparency in sustainable finance raise concerns that the practice is open to widespread abuse. As the market for sustainable finance grows rapidly, sustainable loans reached a record US$448 billion at the end of the third quarter.

In a future of widespread algorithmic pricing, inadvertent cooperation between algorithms is easier than ever, resulting in coordinated price rises. While governments have clear cut laws to assess and deter traditional collusion, automated pricing poses interesting questions as to what will or will not be allowed. We build and demonstrate how a Q-learner algorithm, even under extremely innocent conditions, can reach a collusive outcome in a virtual marketplace.