José de Lima Massano, who opened the Forum on Sustainability in the Angolan Financial System, promoted by the Council of Supervisors of the Financial System (CSSF), said that sustainability has become a topic on the agenda of the global financial sector.
Speaking to the press, the vice-governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Pedro Castro e Silva, said that, within the scope of sustainability, the financial system and all institutions have to adapt to best practices, one of which is issuance of green bonds, financing instruments aimed at projects related to climate or nature conservation.
Pedro Castro e Silva said that a survey promoted by the CSSF was carried out and concluded that all banks are concerned with sustainability issues, but this is still at a very embryonic stage.
"That's why, on the regulator's side, we took this initiative and we have others being planned to quickly have our banking and non-banking financial institutions adapt to the best sustainability practices", he highlighted.
The vice-governor of the BNA highlighted that the issue of sustainability in the Angolan financial system is relatively recent and it is necessary to gather the practices of the most experienced, with Angola having started this journey by carrying out a survey of banks, insurance companies and institutions regulated by the market. capitals to assess the point of knowledge of insertion in your business strategy.
Angola has participated in international payments meetings, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and most of the members are still at a very embryonic stage.
"Just as we converged our regulatory framework with that of the European Central Bank, we are going to do exactly the same thing with regard to climate risk, we are going to follow the standards that are being implemented by the European Central Bank, which are very much based on the recommendations of the international payments bank and we will transcribe them for our regulations", he said.
According to the deputy governor of the BNA, the topic of sustainability "is very important" for financial institutions, because in terms of the environment, climate change is a financial risk in credit to the economy, mainly in financing agricultural projects.
"In a country where the aim is to diversify the economy, the financial system will have a role, (...) let's imagine that the banking system will finance agricultural projects in areas where droughts or floods later occur, initially this hampers the ability of those contracted to return the money to the financial institution", he said.
