BSP Publishes Roadmap and Guiding Principles on Sustainable Finance
The Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) published sustainable finance roadmap and guiding principles that set out the necessary guideposts aimed at unlocking funds for sustainability projects and initiatives. The guidance takes a principles-based approach to identifying economic activities that contribute to supporting sustainable development, with a focus on addressing the impact of climate change, and aims to encourage the flow of capital to these activities. The roadmap will focus on activities related to both the greening of the financial system and the financing of sustainable activities, with a focus on climate change as a critical contributor to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
The roadmap is the strategic action plan of government to promote sustainable finance in the Philippines and to address climate change and other environmental and social risks. The key plans for the development of sustainable finance include the following:
- Integrating sustainability considerations into macroeconomic policies and regulations
- Embedding sustainability into the risk management of the banking, insurance, and asset management sectors
- Encouraging sustainability and climate-related disclosures
- Improving the Sustainable Finance definition and creation of a principles-based taxonomy
- Establishing a sustainable pipeline database, both for public- and private-sector projects
- Joining international initiatives on sustainable finance
Additionally, BSP issued a report on the financial system for the first semester of 2021. The report underscored the sustained resilience of the financial system in Philippines amid COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment of the strengths and sources of vulnerabilities of the banking system, based on a set of Financial Soundness Indicators, suggested that the banking system remained sound and stable even during the health crisis. In the first semester of 2021, the banking system remained on solid footing as evidenced by continued growth in assets, deposits, and capital as well as through sufficient capital and liquidity buffers, net profits, and ample loan loss reserves. The report also highlights the satisfactory performance of the foreign currency deposit system, trust entities, quasi-banks, and other non-bank financial institutions during the period under review. In another update, BSP Governor emphasized that BSP is actively exploring Supervisory and Regulatory Technology (suptech/regtech) solutions that will automate regulatory supervision, reporting, and compliance assessment of cybersecurity risk management of banks.
Related Links
- Press Release on Sustainable Finance Roadmap and Guiding Principles
- Guiding Principles (PDF)
- Roadmap (PDF)
- Press Release on Financial System Resilience Report
- Report (PDF)
- Press Release on Suptech/Regtech
Keywords: Asia Pacific, Philippines, Banking, Sustainable Finance, Climate Change Risk, Suptech, Regtech, COVID-19, ESG, Roadmap, Sustainable Development Goals, Disclosures, Guidance, BSP
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