Yearbook 2021
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In addition to supporting countries of operations in tackling the crisis and its implications via direct and indirect investments, policy activity is also essential to support the Bank’s overall strategic directions and systemic impact. There are existing areas where the Bank’s policy expertise is strong and will remain relevant. One of the most important is developing local capital markets, advancing corporate governance and, more generally, improving the investment climate. To build a resilient and healthy economy the support of a strong local capital market is indispensable. Stock exchanges are the key part of any capital market infrastructure and should play a leading role in capital market development.
EBRD Green Economy Transition Investment (2016-2021, EUR million)
The EBRD supports the development of local stock exchanges at all stages from strategic planning through improving the regulatory, trading and post-trading infrastructure to product development, capacity building and/or to regional expansion. In recent years, on macro level the EBRD supported, among others, Croatia, Armenia, Poland, Uzbekistan and Georgia to prepare a mid-term public capital market and stock exchange development strategy. On micro level, the capacity building event series organised jointly with FEAS for IPO candidate companies or delivering tailor-made advisory services to selected SMEs on crowdfunding were also important parts of our service portfolio.
The ongoing pandemic has triggered the beginning of a new era in finance. In the recovery phase, the need to build back better is now more evident than ever with the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), digitalisation, financial inclusion and cross-border integration challenges rising high on the capital markets’ development agenda. In fact, in many ways capital markets will require a complete reinvention, so they may help mobilise additional sources of finance to spur growth, support the rebuilding process in a sustainable way and benefit more stakeholders. Despite the progress made in local capital market development, significant challenges remain to tackle in the coming years.