Following the official announcement of the winners of Environmental Finance’s Bond Awards 2021 earlier today, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) is proud to announce that it has been awarded the prize of Exchange of the Year for the fifth consecutive year.
Home to the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), the world’s leading platform for sustainable finance, LuxSE was recognised for its trailblazing efforts in facilitating sustainable investment, strengthening sustainable finance education and awareness, and providing access to structured sustainability data, which all contribute to the growth of sustainable finance.
Prestigious prize
The annual Environmental Finance Bond Awards celebrate the leading green, social and sustainability bond deals as well as leading market participants for their thought-leadership, best practice and innovation. The 2021 awards recognise companies and institutions that contributed to the successful development of the sustainable finance market in 2020.
As LuxSE prepares to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) this fall, news of the exchange’s fifth consecutive win at the Environmental Finance Bond Awards 2021 was welcomed by Deputy CEO and Founder of LGX Julie Becker: “It is a tremendous honour for the exchange and all our teams to win the Exchange of the Year award for the fifth consecutive year. This recognition strengthens our commitment to continue to accelerate our contribution to the achievement of the sustainable finance agenda and contribute to the global goals. We are grateful for the loyal support from our issuers and impact-conscious investors who strive to make finance part of the solution and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Addressing barriers to sustainable finance
2020 was a year of great innovation for LGX and these new developments made LuxSE a strong contender for this year’s award. Last year, LuxSE went beyond its core exchange activities and expanded the LGX platform to include education and data.
The LGX Academy, launched in May 2020, provides market professionals with the knowledge they need to accelerate sustainable finance. The launch of the LGX DataHub followed in September 2020. A centralised database now offering structured sustainability data on more than 3,000 sustainable bonds from more than 800 issuers, the LGX DataHub covers close to the entire universe of listed sustainable debt securities worldwide. With up to 150 data points per security, it is the most comprehensive source of structured sustainability data on the market.
Expanding the scope
The current phase of this sustainable finance resource centre was completed in November 2020 with the introduction of the Solactive LGX Green Bond Impact Index. A joint project with index provider Solactive AG, this new index is composed of a selection of green bonds listed on LuxSE and displayed on LGX.
In addition to its innovative launches, LuxSE also expanded the scope of the LGX platform to include Sustainability-Linked Bonds in 2020, to support product developments in the sustainable finance sphere. LGX now counts over 900 sustainable debt securities totalling EUR 440 billion.