The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recognizes that the impact of climate change and other environmental and social risks may undermine its efforts to promote price and financial stability, thus affecting the lives and livelihoods of Filipinos.
As such, the BSP launched its 11-point Sustainable Central Banking (SCB) Strategy in December 2022. The SCB Strategy embodies the BSP’s roles as enabler, mobilizer, and doer in promoting the climate and sustainability agenda.
This was followed by a self-assessment exercise to determine how ESG-related principles and practices could be incorporated into the Bank’s operations and functions as effectively as possible.
Other notable accomplishments of the BSP under the SCB program include the following:
- issuance of various sustainable finance policies and regulations;
- publication of various research on the potential impacts of climate change on the banking system and the link between climate change and monetary policy;
- enhancement of the Enterprise Risk Management Framework to integrate sustainability and ESG-related risks;
- adoption of sustainable practices in currency production and disposal;
- reduction of paper wastes through the adoption of electronic document and data processing systems;
- implementation of green, sustainable, and responsible building designs and energy efficiency measures in BSP facilities;
- investments in the Bank for International Settlements’ Green Bond Fund;
- integration of green lending criteria in the pension fund;
- signing of the United Nations (UN)-supported Principles for Responsible Investment and subsequent establishment of a Responsible Investment Committee to oversee policy implementation; and
- publication of the maiden Sustainability Report, featuring the BSP’s accomplishments and pipeline of activities for the succeeding years.