The ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) convened its 38th ACMF Chairs’ Meeting yesterday hosted by the Indonesia Financial Services Authority. The meeting was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in a hybrid format with the in-person meeting.
The ACMF agreed to promote transition towards the Paris Agreement Goals in the region by developing broad principles-based transition guidelines.
The guidelines are aimed at assisting companies in developing, communicating and maintaining the transparency of their transition plan and efforts.
Acknowledging the role of the carbon market in accelerating the net zero transition, the meeting also agreed to commence Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) Study Phase 2, focussing on the disclosure and transition-related aspects.
The work on transition disclosure guidelines and VCM will be completed under the joint sustainable finance initiatives between ACMF and the Working Committee on Capital Market Development (WC-CMD).
ACMF also agreed to strengthen the collaboration with International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) by having regular engagement sessions and joint events/conferences.
The ACMF would priorities capacity-building programmes, and explore the potential for future ACMF-ISSB cooperation and comparable sustainability disclosures across ASEAN.
The meeting also endorsed the Sustainable Finance Knowledge Hub which will be launch at the end of March to serve as a ‘one-stop’ centre to raise awareness and educate participants on sustainable finance-related issues.
The ACMF also approved the development of the ASEAN Green Lane to facilitate cross-border offering of ASEAN sustainable and responsible funds under the existing ASEAN CIS Framework.
Under the ASEAN Green, Social, and Sustainability Bond Standards introduced in 2017 and 2018, as of March 15, USD38.06 billion ASEAN-labelled green, social, or sustainable bond/sukuk have been issued.
To enhance the quality of corporate governance practice to align with the expected updates to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, the ACMF also approved the proposed plan to revise the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS), .
The revised ACGS is expected to be approved in September 2023. The meeting continues with exchanging experiences and recent updates on policies and regulatory frameworks for digital assets while acknowledging the importance of digital asset supervision.
Recent updates from members were also shared at the meeting.
The meeting also touched on the capacity-building work plan under the ACMF Market Development Programme which will include a secondment programme and training programme among members and collaboration with external parties.
ACMF expressed its gratitude to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in providing ACMF with technical assistance and expert guidance to foster capital market development throughout the ASEAN region.
ACMF also thanked the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA) and the Industry Advisory Panel Working Groups under the Joint Sustainable Finance Working Group (JSFWG) for their continuous support in developing ASEAN’s sustainable capital market.
ACMF looks forward to the ASEAN Taxonomy Board’s’ release of the ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance Version 2 by the end of March 2023.
