The Central Bank of Sri Lanka, jointly with the Sustainable Banking Network (SBN) managed by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has made arrangements to conduct a Workshop on “Sustainable Finance” on 28 February 2017 at the John Exter International Conference Hall of the Central Bank, Colombo with the patronage of His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena as the Chief Guest and the Keynote Speaker.

At the beginning of 2017, the Central Bank announced the monetary and financial sector policies (Road Map) for 2017 and beyond. In the Road Map, it was highlighted that as a member of the SBN, the Central Bank would focus on sustainable banking practices to help banks to effectively manage environmental and social risks in the projects they finance and support businesses that are greener, climate friendly and socially inclusive. It was also announced that as an important step towards sustainable finance, with the support of IFC, the Central Bank intends to conduct a workshop with the participation of financial institutions in Sri Lanka during the first quarter of 2017.

Sri Lanka’s first Sustainable Finance Workshop is aimed at enhancing awareness and building a consensus among the key stakeholders with a view to promoting sustainable finance in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the workshop is conducted as a knowledge sharing and brainstorming session for key regulatory stakeholders and financial institutions to collectively define a vision and actions on how the financial sector could be better informed and empowered to contribute to the sustainable development of the Sri Lankan economy. A key outcome of the workshop would be to set up a Working Group on Sustainable Finance with a view to developing a Sustainable Finance Roadmap/Guidelines.