
Maria Bazhanova
Head of ESG Ratings, Financial Institutions
Sustainable Fitch
Maria Bazhanova has 20+ years of experience in financial services across capital markets, corporate banking and structured finance gained with large international financial institutions and more recently Sustainable Fitch and Fitch Ratings. Maria Bazhanova has joined Fitch Ratings in September 2019 specializing in Sustainable Finance. She co-developed the ESG Ratings approach and methodology and is currently overseeing ESG Ratings for financial institutions, insurance and agencies at Sustainable Fitch, a division of Fitch Group. Before Fitch Ratings Maria Bazhanova held senior roles with BNP Paribas within debt capital markets and structured finance driving origination, execution and advisory in Emerging Markets and Southern Europe, and 5 years with ABN AMRO where she was responsible for securitization and debt capital markets transactions in Central and Eastern Europe. Maria Bazhanova holds an MBA from HEC business school in Paris and MSc in Finance. She is a member of two working groups led by the International Capital Markets Association for the development of social bonds and ESG indices.