Sustainable finance poised for growth in Middle East: HSBC survey

Published 15 Oct,2020 via Daily News Egypt - HSBC released, on Thursday, a global survey on sustainable finance markets. The HSBC 2020 Sustainable Finance and Investing Survey highlights how the Middle East sustainable finance market is at an earlier stage of development than markets such as Europe, Asia, and North America, with some contrasting results between investors and issuers.

Among issuers in the Middle East, 93% say environmental and social (E&S) issues are important to them — but only 65% of investors feel that way (compared to the overall global average of over 90%). Within these majorities, the shares that believe E&S issues are very important are also lower than in other regions. Furthermore, just 7% of investors say they always take environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into consideration in their investments and few support environmentally or socially desirable projects at the risk of lowering their returns.

However, it should be noted that a large share of investors in the Middle East (41%, more than anywhere else) are intending to develop firm-wide policies on responsible investing or on ESG issues. As for investors, who already have these policies in place, very high numbers seek out material ESG issues when they invest and incorporate impact goals. Middle Eastern investors are also very optimistic about the benefits of ESG – more in this region than elsewhere see potential for ESG strategies to outperform.