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Nairobi, Kenya, March 17, 2017—
Kenya Banking Association (KBA) and the Mongolian Bankers Association (MBA), members of the IFC-supported Sustainable Banking Network (SBN), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance environmental and social risk management and sustainable financing practices for the Kenyan and Mongolian banking sector. The signing ceremony took place during the sustainable finance related learning visit of the MBA representatives to Nairobi, facilitated and supported by the Dutch development bank FMO and IFC.
Mongolia and Kenya have both launched national policies or voluntary principles on sustainable finance.
National
sustainable finance guidelines and principles define how financial institutions can manage environmental and social risks and meet growing financing needs for green and inclusive economic growth. The Kenya-Mongolia cross border exchange is an example of peer knowledge exchange and learning visits conducted by SBN members.
As one of the founding members of SBN, the MBA has successfully positioned itself as a consensus builder, mobilizing the entire banking community to jointly develop, adopt and implement the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Principles. Both IFC and FMO have been supporting this initiative since 2013. Mongolian Bankers Association forged a strong public-private partnership with the Bank of Mongolia and Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Principles have become the key component of the Mongolian Government’s Green Development Policy.
The Kenya banking industry, through the KBA, adopted the Sustainable Finance Guiding Principles in March 2015. KBA, with the support of DEG and FMO, has developed a capacity building program for banks, including an innovative e-Learning platform. KBA is working with the industry to develop a green bonds market with the objective of having individual bank issuance.
“We plan to share and learn best practices on the implementation of sustainable finance principles, developing our secretariats as centers for knowledge sharing in our respective regions,” said Tumurkhuu Davaakhuu, Vice President of the Mongolia Banking Association.
Knowledge sharing topics will include work on capacity development, knowledge sharing, directives, policy documents and toolkits, as well as reporting, monitoring and evaluation sustainable finance performance. Mongolia and Kenya will also discuss the Green Bond related subjects that are being actively pursued by the both associations.
“At KBA, we are pleased to see the tremendous interest and support from FMO and IFC in advancing Sustainable Finance practices between our two associations. We look forward to the learning partnership” said Habil Olaka, CEO of KBA.
“FMO is proud to be a founding partner of the sustainable finance initiatives of both the MBA in Mongolia and KBA in Kenya. Over the past years, we have seen the banking sector of both countries develop and embrace sustainable finance principles. The strong local ownership demonstrated by the KBA and MBA is the way forward in continuous advancement of such initiatives. We believe connecting both partners is of great value to advance global cooperation and further develop a sustainable banking sector.” said Huib-Jan de Ruijter, Director Financial Institutions at FMO, The Netherlands.
“IFC is proud to connect Mongolian and Kenyan banks, as part of the wider SBN network, to share experience in this shared journey toward sustainable finance,” said Tuyen D. Nguyen, IFC Resident Representative in Mongolia. “Higher standards of environmental and social risk management by financial institutions are a powerful way to manage concrete business risks, increase market trust, and attract investment, especially toward green financing.”
About MBA
The Mongolian Bankers Association (MBA) is a self-regulated professional association that was established in 2000. With over 20 members, the association integrates all 14 commercial banks in Mongolia. MBA’s vision is to lead the banking and financial sector in support of the sustainable development and equitable economic growth of Mongolia. For further information, visit
http://mba.mn
About KBA
The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) is the Kenyan financial sector's leading advocacy group and the umbrella body of the institutions licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) with a current membership of 47 financial institutions. For more information, visit
www.kba.co.ke
For more on KBA’s Sustainable Finance Initiative, visit
sfi.kba.co.ke
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch development bank. FMO has invested in the private sector in developing countries and emerging markets for more than 46 years. Its mission is to empower entrepreneurs to build a better world. FMO invests in sectors where it believes its contribution can have the highest long-term impact: financial institutions, energy and agribusiness. For more information, visit
www.fmo.nl/
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our six decades of experience to create opportunity where it’s needed most. In FY16, our long-term investments in developing countries rose to nearly $19 billion, leveraging our capital, expertise and influence to help the private sector end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
About SBN
IFC helps create markets for sustainable finance through the voluntary Sustainable Banking Network (SBN) (
www.ifc.org/sbn
). Established in 2012 by IFC and 10 founding countries, SBN is the leading global knowledge and capacity building platform for financial sector regulators and banking associations, now representing 31 countries and 85 percent of banking assets across emerging markets. Through the Network, IFC supports members to develop national policies and principles and to grow sustainable finance practices and opportunities, including innovative new green products such as green bonds and green credit lines.
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