By Kaveesha Fernando
NEW DELHI, India (CWBN)_ The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) announced on Thursday (November 20), the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Indian counterparts; the State Bank of India (SBI) and the India International Exchange (IFSC) Limited (India INX).
The announcement was made against the backdrop of the virtual summit between Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also on Thursday.
The agreements aim to promote Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) and green finance in the Indian market. LuxSE stated that it plans to work closely with both SBI and INX to unite financial entities across the planet in order to further the global goals defined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
CEO of LuxSE, Robert Scharfe, stated that as a leading global exchange, it is LuxSE’s aim to unite the world’s issuers and investors and facilitate sustainable investment across the world.
“Through these two milestone agreements with SBI and INX, we enter the Indian market to bring international investors closer to Indian issuers, and build strong and mutually beneficial relationships with Indian market participants, particularly in the green sphere,” he added.
The MOU with SBI was signed on November 11 at a virtual event. Chairman of SBI Dinesh Khara said that the SBI has adopted sustainability as one of their core values and that it was the first public sector bank in India to publish its Sustainability Report as per the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework.
“The MoU with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange will open up new avenues for market development and fundraising in the green bond market,” he stated.
The second virtual event saw the signing of an MOU between LuxSE and India INX on November 17. India INX MD and CEO Venkataramani Balasubramanian stated that India INX feels that they can provide issuers and investors with an opportunity to list and trade green bonds on their platform GSM Green along with the opportunity to dual list with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange; the largest green bond listing platform with exceptional governance standards.
“We envisage this pact will strengthen ties between the two countries and encourage more green funding, which is in line with the Government of India’s initiative of sustainable development,” he said.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
