CBB to issue ESG guidelines next year

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Central Bank of Bahrain said it is currently developing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure guidelines to assist companies with ESG integration and reporting against a broad range of environmental, social, and corporate governance factors.

The CBB expects the issuance of the ESG disclosure guidelines in the first half of 2023.

ESG reports, CBB said, are aimed at better examining a company’s efficiency, sustainability, and risk exposure.

Given the impact of ESG factors on a company’s capacity to execute its business plan and produce value in the long run, the CBB said it is placing great emphasis on integrating disclosure guidelines within the CBB’s regulatory framework.

The guidelines are for ensuring progressive adoption of ESG disclosures that are relevant, specific, comprehensive, clear, verifiable, balanced, and consistent.

The guidelines will follow international best practices, frameworks, initiatives and the responses to the ESG Reporting Survey released earlier this year by the CBB to all listed companies, insurance firms, banks and category 1 investment firms.

Additionally, Bahrain Bourse, the exchange licensed by the CBB as a Self-Regulatory Organisation, issued its ESG Reporting Guidelines on the 11th June 2020 as an effort to support sustainable capital markets through enhanced disclosure standards.

It aims to provide a tool to encourage issuers in providing ESG information to investors.