Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno cited the need for the central bank to lead the way in investing in sustainable finance to encourage more institutions to follow this path.
During the virtual event of the International Monetary Fund titled “Embedding Climate Change into Asia’s Recovery Strategy” on Thursday night, Diokno said the BSP adopted the sustainable central banking program as among its corporate strategies vis-à-vis the sustainability agenda.
Under this bid, he said, monetary authorities have established a sustainable central banking roadmap that would provide the framework and milestone in the adoption of sustainability principles in the central bank’s operations.
“The framework highlights the essential roles of the central bank as an enabler, mobilizer, and doer in advocating sustainability in the financial system,” Diokno said.
For one, he said the BSP, as an enabler, promotes a policy environment that supports the adoption and growth of sustainable finance.
“The BSP will supplement the sustainable finance framework with more detailed risk management guidelines,” Diokno said, citing this bid as part of it being an enabler.
He said the BSP would also “lead and influence financial institutions to carry out environmentally and socially responsible business decisions and adopt green practices.”
Among others, he said the BSP has invested in the green bond fund of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in line with its sustainable investment strategy.
Diokno said the bank has formed a bank-wide technical working group (TWG) that would conduct vulnerability assessment “to determine the impact of climate change to the BSP offices and branches.”
He said the TWG would also do “a gap analysis to identify the areas in the BSP operations where we can imbed ESG (environmental, social and governance) or green principles and practices.”
“As you can see, we’re adopting a holistic approach to champion sustainability by enabling, mobilizing, and doing,” he added.*PNA
