The ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) welcomed the progress achieved by the ASEAN Green Bond Standards at its meeting today. Since its launch in November 2017, the ASEAN Green Bond Standards have gained encouraging traction and there have been three issuances from Malaysia and Singapore carrying the ASEAN Green Bond label. The first sovereign sukuk in ASEAN issued by Indonesia is aligned with the ASEAN Green Bond Standards.
The progress of the ASEAN Green Bond Standards demonstrates the region's increasing emphasis on sustainable financing and underscores the capacity of the ASEAN Green Bond Standards in providing guidance to issuers on issuing green bonds and investors with a credible reference point.
The meeting also welcomed the hosting of the first ACMF ASEAN Green Bond Standards Roundtable by the State Securities Commission of Viet Nam (SSC Viet Nam) to engage with market participants including banks, securities firms and fund management companies, on the adoption of the ASEAN Green Bond Standards. Similar ACMF Roundtables will be held throughout the region to raise awareness as well as to encourage greater adoption of the ASEAN Green Bond Standards.
The ACMF also agreed to carry out a series of engagements with market participants on further developing the cross border offering of ASEAN collective investment schemes (CIS) to complement the recently enhanced ASEAN CIS framework.
The ACMF commended the pilot initiative to connect the stock markets of Malaysia and Singapore which could act as a template for future connectivity amongst ASEAN stock markets.
The meeting also endorsed the ACMF Professional Mobility framework to facilitate the cross-border movement of investment advisers and the publishing of research reports. ACMF will formalise the arrangements in the second half of 2018.
The ACMF noted the extension of the ASEAN Debt Securities Disclosure Standards to cover issuances of plain debt securities under a debt issuance programme.
The ACMF would like to extend its appreciation SSC Viet Nam for hosting the 28th ACMF meeting and the inaugural ASEAN Green Bond Standards Roundtable, and acknowledged the support of the Asian Development Bank in many of ACMF's initiatives, particularly in relation to the ACMF Market Development Programme.
-------------
Note-to-Editors:
About the ACMF
The ACMF is a high-level grouping of capital market regulators from all 10 ASEAN jurisdictions, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. The ACMF is currently chaired by the Securities Commission Malaysia.
The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was established in 2015 and is a major milestone in the regional economic integration agenda. ASEAN has a combined population of over 622 million people and in 2014, was collectively the third largest economy in Asia and the seventh largest in the world.
More information on the ACMF and its initiatives can be found at the ACMF website www.theacmf.org.