The European Investment Bank (EIB) together with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores of the Dominican Republic and the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, with the support of the European Union, held a roundtable on February 15 on the topic of Green, Social and Sustainable Bonds.

The objectives of the roundtable were to: i) Identify opportunities and challenges in the issuance of green, social and sustainable bonds for financial institutions in the MSME sector in the Dominican Republic; ii) Provide a practical overview of the process of issuing these financial instruments; and iii) Promote the exchange of strategic experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean.

First, it was highlighted the progress made by the Dominican Republic’s Superintendency of the Securities Market in the development of the Green Taxonomy together with the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MIMARENA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

It was announced the approval of the second green bond issue of the Dominican Republic, to Banco Popular Dominicano, S.A. – Banco Múltiple, for an amount of up to DOP 2,500 million Dominican pesos.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) highlighted that the Green, Social and Sustainable Bond market is expanding and grew 59 times from 2015 to 2021 and that Latin America and the Caribbean issued 5% of the world total, being the region that has issued more gender bonds.

Likewise, the Dominican Republic Stock Exchange and Securities Market stated that there are business opportunities in the issuance of this type of instruments and that there is much appetite for this type of investment locally and internationally.