Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has announced the launching of a new think-tank and training center, “the Regional Center for Sustainable Finance (RCSF)”. The RCSF has been established in recognition of the urgency to bridge the finance gap to fulfill the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The center, focusing on Egypt and the Middle East and Africa (MEA), is part of an ambitious initiative at the FRA aimed to bring together all training and educational institutes providing services to Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFIs), within the FRA mandate to support the development of the non-banking financial markets.
The RCSF’s main objectives are to target the removal of existing market barriers that might hinder the gradual integration of sustainable finance practices, instruments, and management models. The center will also promote sustainable finance literacy in different countries in the MEA region, especially in countries where Egyptian NBFIs have growth and expansion potential.
The RCSF will also encourage the redirection of private capital flows needed to support the achievement of the UN SDGs, including climate mitigation and adaptation. It also aims to cover investment gaps in the region and build the private sector capacity in issuing and utilizing green finance instruments such as green bonds, social bonds, and sustainability bonds, along with adopting responsible investment and management practices.
The center will provide sustainable finance training and technical advisory support – especially in ESG, climate related risk, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and other international practices, alongside conducting awareness-raising events. Furthermore, it will forge partnerships with academia, experts, and relevant institutions in a bid to drive sustainable finance research and analytics in the MEA region. Investors, asset managers, insurers, investment groups, venture capitalists, lending institutions, and the private sector are expected to benefit from the center’s services.
The RCSF Advisory Board comprises well-respected practitioners, experts, leaders, and institutional representatives with a diverse expertise including James Zhan, UNCTAD Director of Investment and Enterprise and Chair of the SSE Governing Board.
James Zhan said “I congratulate Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority on this great initiative and I look forward to supporting the work of the new center as a member of its Advisory Board. The Egyptian Exchange was one of the five founding members of the SSE and Egypt’s FRA led our Advisory Group on Security Market Regulators. We have been honoured to work with Egypt’s exchange and security market regulator over the past decade of their sustainable finance journey. The new regional center on sustainable finance extends Egypt’s long-standing role in promoting investment for sustainable development.”
SSE and FRA
The FRA is an active member of the SSE Regulators Working Group and has participated in many SSE projects, including leading the SSE Advisory Group that lead to the report How Securities regulators can support the Sustainable Development Goals. This Advisory Group was chaired by Mohammed Omran Chairman of FRA.
“I applaud the SSE and its Advisory Group for making a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion among securities market regulators, exchanges, investors and issuers to promote sustainable finance.” said Mohammed Omran Chairman of FRA in the SSE’s 10 year anniversary report.
Sustainable Finance is at the core of SSE
SSE is involved in many projects to advance sustainable finance, including the SSE ESG Guidance campaign and the SSE Climate Disclosure Advisory Group.
SSE ESG Guidance Database 
The SSE ESG Guidance Database contains a comprehensive list of all stock exchange ESG guidance documents in the world so that other stock exchanges can learn from their peers. The database is now updated to include an analysis of major ESG reporting instruments referenced in stock exchange guidance documents. To learn more, check our press release about the new database.
SSE Climate Disclosure Advisory Group
The SSE Climate Disclosure Advisory Group aims to support exchanges in providing guidance to their market on climate disclosure. The new workstream will assist stock exchanges in developing best practice reporting guidance for issuers to ensure globally consistent disclosures incorporating the recommendations from the FSB Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
This new project is being conducted under the auspices of Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, in collaboration with our Co-Chairs for this Advisory Group, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. More information here and here.
