Sustainable finance data for Central Banks

2021 survey conducted by the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC)

IFC Report  |  No 14  | 
17 December 2021
by  Christian Schmieder, Bruno Tissot, Romana Peronaci, Pierre Bui Quang, Elena Triebskorn, Nur Izzati and Merve Artman
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This IFC report summarises the results of a survey conducted on sustainable finance statistics among its members (with 63 answers, providing detailed information for 28 AEs and 31 EMEs). The objective was to identify related data needs, availability and gaps from the perspective of the central banking community, in close coordination with other international statistical initiatives. Sustainable finance is defined as integrating a wide range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects when making investment decisions.

A key finding is that statistics on sustainable finance are of growing interest to central banks in pursuing their core mandates, ie micro- and macro-prudential supervision, asset and reserve management activities, and the conduct of monetary policy.

The exercise was complemented by a stock take of core references on ESG data issues, as identified by IFC members, which are available here.

The findings of the survey also point to three main recommendations for central banks:

  • Intensify the identification of sustainable finance data needs to pursue their policy objectives
  • Cooperate with traditional and new stakeholders to close data gaps, especially at the micro level
  • Lead by example by improving the usage of the new data being collected