LGX Corner - October

Welcome to the October edition of the LGX newsletter!

This month, we bring you a UN Award, the EU SURE social bond listing, Climate Bonds Initiative's latest report, new deals, and much more

We are proud to announce that the Luxembourg Stock Exchange is one of the winners of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Awards for its important work with LGX.

UN Climate Change awarded LGX in the category of ‘Financing for Climate Friendly Investment’ for our contribution to tackling climate change by facilitating sustainable investment.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals inspired us to establish LGX four years ago, so we are particularly honoured to have our work and impact recognised by the UN Climate Change.

We would like to extend a big thank you to the LGX team, and to everyone who has contributed to LGX’s journey and success over the past four years. It is this team effort -  coupled with determination and commitment - that made this important UN recognition possible. A big thank you also to all our issuers!

In the presence of European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, we marked the listing on our exchange of the first social bond issued under the EU SURE programme.

The EUR 17 billion Social Bond, which received enormous support from investors, will protect jobs and workers in European countries heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

As part of LuxFLAG Sustainable Investment Week 2020, we had the pleasure of hosting a virtual session on the role sustainability data plays for Luxembourg market players.

After an opening remark by our Deputy CEO and Founder of LGX Julie Becker, our Head of Sustainable Finance Laetitia Hamon moderated an interesting panel discussion on the challenges of gathering and analysing data on green, social and sustainable securities. Our Commercial Director Carlo Houblie joined the data discussion, which has only just begun!

Together with the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), we joined organisations across 90 jurisdictions to celebrate IOSCO’s 4th World Investor Week with a virtual Ring the Bell ceremony. The event aimed at strengthening public awareness of the importance of financial literacy and investor protection.

After the opening remarks by Julie Becker, Claude Marx, Director General of the CSSF, called for an inclusive approach to financial literacy in his speech, while Laetitia Hamon presented key Sustainable Finance concepts.

With the listing of its first Sustainability Bond, China Merchants Bank (CMB) became the first Chinese commercial bank to issue this type of security! The USD 300 million bond also marks the bank's debut on LGX and is aligned with CMB’s Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework, released in September.

With a EUR 500 million inaugural green bond displayed on LGX, the National Bank of Greece became the first Greek financial institution to join LGX. The proceeds of the bond will finance various renewable energy technologies in Greece.

Volvo Car also made its debut on LGX this month with a EUR 500 million green bond, the first bond of its kind to be issued by the Swedish car manufacturer. The issuance will finance the research, development and production of zero-emission battery electric vehicles (BEV) as Volvo intends to launch new BEV models over the coming years.

"Finance will become sustainable by default" is the title of Paperjam's latest supplement where Julie Becker shares her vision for the future of sustainable finance and presents our solution to the challenges linked to data and education.

The interview explores the journey of LGX, from its creation to its latest developments, and offers insights into the current state of the sustainable finance market.

In the latest edition of the World Federation of Exchanges’ Focus magazine, our Sustainability Research Manager and LGX Academy Lecturer Paul Chahine highlights the importance of education in ensuring a green and sustainable recovery from the ongoing crisis.

This month marked the end of the LGX Academy’s first fully virtual course cycle! About 15 participants with diverse backgrounds completed the three modules of the course, with each module organised as 2-hour sessions over three days.

Course participants successfully acquired knowledge about the foundations of sustainable finance, products and standard, applicable regulation, current market practice and much more – and are now the proud holders of an LGX Academy training certificate!

Next month, the LGX Academy will make a big announcement, so stay tuned!  

Each month, we introduce you to one of the features of the LGX DataHub to help you kick-start your sustainable investment strategy.

With our dashboard feature, you get access to tailored strategic insights based on your investment preferences. Key indicators and trends are only a click away!  The LGX DataHub enables you to monitor important developments on the data that matters to your investments and objectives.

Julie Becker took the opportunity to share key insights into the impacts of COVID-19 on the sustainable finance market while discussing Climate Bonds Initiative’s (CBI) latest report during its recent webinar on 22 October.

CBI’s Sustainable Debt Global State of the Market Report gives an overview of the sustainable debt market in H1 2020, and presents the instruments that defined the market in the first half of the year.

We were recently appointed to the 2020/2021 Advisory Council (AC) of the International Capital Market Association’s Green Bond Principles and Social Bond Principles Executive Committee.

The AC advises the Executive Committee, helps increase its market awareness and outreach, and enables further engagement with specific membership categories and observers. We are proud to be part of this distinguished group!

As of 1 January 2021, the European Central Bank (EBC) will accept Sustainability-Linked Bonds as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations as well as for Eurosystem outright purchases for monetary policy purposes.

This is an important milestone for the latest addition to the thematic bond universe!

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