LuxSE Named Environmental Finance Exchange of the Year for 7th Time

On Monday 8 April 2024, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) reported that it has been named "Exchange of the Year" (for the seventh time since 2017) at Environmental Finance's Sustainable Debt Awards.

Monday marked the release of the Environmental Finance Sustainable Debt Awards winners list for 2024. Previously known as the Environmental Finance Bond Awards, every year, this initiative celebrates the leading green, social, sustainable and sustainability-linked (GSSS) bond and loan deals and recognises market innovations. The winners in the different categories are recognised for their thought-leadership, best practice or innovation.

According to Environmental Finance, LuxSE "cemented its position as the leading exchange for sustainable debt in 2023", a year in which it welcomed 554 new GSSS bonds which raised a total of €207 billion. The award recognised LuxSE for its work in emerging markets and gender finance through its leading platform for sustainable finance, the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX).

"Contributing to closing the gaps in financing for sustainable development in emerging markets and gender equality were key drivers for the Luxembourg Stock Exchange in 2023, shaping many of the initiatives we implemented, the securities we displayed and cooperations that we entered into. Addressing these gaps will play a key role in defining whether the goals set out in the Paris Agreement and by the UN SDGs are met or missed and so it is an honour to have our efforts in these areas recognised once more by Environmental Finance," said Julie Becker, CEO of LuxSE. 

Throughout 2023, LuxSE continued to foster awareness of the importance of gender finance and gender-lens investing by releasing a number of resources in the market. These included a market study entitled "Linking gender and finance: An overview of the gender-focused bond market" and a two-hour LGX Academy module on "How capital markets contribute to the growth of gender finance".

LuxSE added that it continues to flag gender-focused bonds displayed on LGX, to make it easier for investors to identify investment opportunities which contribute to gender equality goals. At year end, there were more than 60 gender-focused bonds on LGX.

Moreover, 2023 saw LuxSE enter into new and complementary cooperation agreements with counterparts in emerging markets such as Chongwa (Macao) Financial Asset Exchange Co., Ltd (MOX), China Everbright Bank, the Abu Dhabi Exchange and Bolsa de Valores de Cabo Verde (BVC) to advance the sustainable finance agenda in new regions.

Education also remained a key focus for LuxSE's sustainable finance experts, with LGX Academy training courses taking place in China, the Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka. LuxSE also co-organised the International Finance Corporation (IFC)'s three-day Green Bond Technical Assistance Programme (GB TAP) named Green, Social and Sustainability (GSS) Bonds Executive Programme in Luxembourg in November 2023.

The LGX DataHub, LuxSE's sustainable bond database, continued to gain international recognition and was used as a data source by institutions such as the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

As of 31 December 2023, LGX encompassed 1,874 GSSS bonds from 309 issuers in 59 countries, totalling more than €977 billion in funding for sustainable development throughout the world. In February 2024, LGX reached its largest milestone to date: counting €1 trillion worth of outstanding GSSS bonds on the platform.