Mongolian government agencies, industry players and financial institutions met in May 2013 at the first Mongolian Sustainable Finance Forum in Ulaanbaatar to discuss how they can work together towards a green civilization for Mongolia. They benefited from international experiences and knowledge shared by IFC, FMO, and private sector players from other markets.

The Forum was well attended by all major stakeholders in the Mongolian banking industry, including the President’s Office, Bank of Mongolia, the Ministry of Environment and Green Development, all 14 Mongolian banks, the Mongolian Bankers’ Association, the Banking and Finance Academy, as well as key industry representatives served by the Mongolian banking industry.

In particular, the Forum featured a CEO Roundtable at which CEOs from 10 Mongolian banks shared their experiences with addressing sustainability through E&S policies. All the participating banks expressed a desire for shared learning and collaboration, and agreed on the need for more awareness and capacity building – for bank staff as well as clients

In accordance to that, the participating CEOs agreed to establish a Working Group for sustainable finance, to be convened by the Mongolian Bankers’ Association, which would work towards a joint declaration on sustainable finance by Mongolian banks.

Since then, member banks of MBA, with strong supports from IFC, FMO, have established Sustainable finance principles along with core sectors guidelines on how to align banking services in more sustainable ways. Since 2015, banks have been voluntarily implementing the above mentioned guidelines through each area of banking business operations.

Those principles and guidelines allow banks to consider ESG factors in each step of investment decisions, loan processing with the purpose of making the right financial decisions based on more sustainable, green mindsets and techniques.

MBA and its members are committed to the Mongolian national green development mission, Global sustainability efforts and bigger visions around building more sound and sustainable future for everyone and the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Initiative (MSFI) MBA had pioneered back in 2013 was and is one of the most valuable contribution towards green economy and green world.

MSFI is already a globally recognized and valued initiative in its context and successful inclusion of all players under one goal. Today MSFI is not just a goal and mission we have but it turned into an independent legal entity called “Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA)” , established by the MBA in 2017 carrying much bigger visions to go further.