August 13, 2021 – SBFN welcomes South Africa’s National Treasury as our newest member.
South Africa’s National Treasury (NT) has been an SBFN Observer since 2016 when it started its journey to develop a national vision and roadmap on sustainable finance for all parts of the financial sector, supported by IFC and SBFN.
NT launched a draft Technical Paper on Financing a Sustainable Economy in May 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, NT and other regulators and industry associations established a Climate Risk Forum, hosted by the Banking Association South Africa, as a regulator-industry collaborating platform to take forward the recommendations of the Technical Paper.
In 2020 and 2021, NT led the development of a national green finance taxonomy with extensive stakeholder input and IFC support. On 15 October, NT announced publication of the Updated Technical Paper on “Financing a Sustainable Economy” as well as membership of SBFN to support global efforts towards accelerating sustainable financing and the development of international standards.
SBFN and IFC look forward to supporting South Africa’s National Treasury as it continues to lead on national and regional the sustainable finance approaches.