UAE: DFSA joins network for greening the financial system
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Sep 2019
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced that it is now a member of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), becoming one of the first regulatory authorities in the MENA region to join the NGFS.
The NGFS is a group of central banks and supervisors willing, on a voluntary basis, to exchange experiences, share best practices, contribute to the development of environment and climate risk management in the financial sector, and to mobilise mainstream finance to support the transition toward a sustainable economy. The network’s purpose is to help in strengthening the global response required to meet the goals of the Paris agreement (an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), and to enhance the role of the financial system to manage risks and tomobilise capital for green and low-carbon investments in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development.
The NGFS was established in December 2017 by eight central banks and supervisors at the Paris One Planet Summit. Since then, the NGFS has grown to 42 members and eight observers, representing five continents.
Mr Bryan Stirewalt, DFSA chief executive, said the regulator looks forward to working with other members of the NGFS to further develop environment and climate risk management standards for the financial sector and to support global sustainable economic development goals.
He also said, “In August 2018, the DFSA issued its guidelines on green bonds that aim to facilitate the issuing and listing of environmentally friendly fixed income securities, including green sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai, the largest listing exchange of issued sukuk in the world.”
Mr Frank Elderson, chairman of the NGFS said, “It is important for the NGFS to have member authorities from the GCC and the MENA regions to ensure that their environmental and climate challenges are well understood and considered by the international community and to benefit from their experience dealing with these risks.” M