Welcome to the green finance website of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank
In 2019,
the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) announced its supervisory Green Programme, which
aims to promote environmental sustainability in the financial sector, which we
consider a key factor for both long-term, healthy economic growth and the
stability of financial markets. The programme is designed to strengthen a
financial system that is resilient to environmental economic shocks and ready
for the challenges of the future, and thus a driver for a green economic
transition.
The Green Programme is based on three pillars. Under the first pillar,
we are seeking to measure and quantify the environmental risks – for example,
through the use of supervisory climate stress tests – that the financial sector
will face in the coming years and decades. We also aim to strengthen the
awareness and preparedness of the Hungarian financial sector to manage climate
and environmental risks through regulatory tools, recommendations and
incentives. Also under this pillar, we would like to use incentives to make
green financing attractive and thus supporting the sustainability turnaround. A key element of the latter is the MNB's green
capital relief programme,
which is a globally unique initiative among regulatory efforts to promote green
lending.
In addition
to the points regarding the financial sector, we have expanded our social and
international relations in the second pillar of the programme, with a
particular focus on education. To encourage the financial sector and the
academy, we have established several green finance awards. In recent years, we
have published numerous analyses and studies, and organised international
conferences and workshops with renowned national and foreign speakers. Part of
this overall activity is our support of green finance education and research in
universities, and our Family Green Finances programme, which are meant to
support the public's green finance literacy.
The credibility of the Green Programme is strengthened by
our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our operations, as set
out in the third pillar of the programme. With this in mind, we have undertaken
and achieved carbon neutrality in the MNB's operations through habitat
restoration projects.
Allow me to cite the thoughts of the renowned British naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who says, "To an evolutionary biologist, the term ‛culture’ describes the information that can be passed from one individual to another by teaching or imitation." Teaching and setting example are not only a key element for the survival of our culture, but also our shared responsibility in the fight against the challenges of climate change. The MNB also wants to lead the way in this area.
The MNB's statutory tasks include promoting and disseminating financial literacy and supporting environmental sustainability policies, in line with the Green Mandate voted by the Parliament in 2021. With this dual commitment in mind, we have integrated the green finance knowledge accumulated at the central bank into a new comprehensive website. I am confident that the players in the Hungarian green finance ecosystem, including those under the supervision of the MNB, citizens committed to the sustainability turnaround, companies, public institutions and non-profit organisations, will find green finance information here both relevant and inspiring.
Dear reader, I am pleased to call your attention to the renewed green finance website of the MNB, which marks another milestone in the development of green finance culture in Hungary.