ESG

JPX Market Innovation & Research, Inc. (“JPXI”) partnered with Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (“Nomura”) to form the Study Panel on the Use of Digital Bonds in ESG Investing on September 28, 2022 (organizer: JPXI; administration: Nomura), bringing together issuers and investors with green bond experience, as well as securities firms, banks and trust banks, ESG rating agencies, system vendors, and public-sector organizations*1. The panel has met seven times, and a report on the findings of its discussions has been published.

The report indicates that, in light of the global push towards net zero emissions and carbon neutrality, as well as the investing community’s stance on responsible investment, growing adoption of new green bonds—such as the digitally tracked green bonds (GDTB) issued by Japan Exchange Group (“JPX”) in June 2022—by both issuers and investors will help improve green investment data transparency and enhance the user experience for issuers, investors, and other stakeholders.

One focus of the discussions was GDTB, whose advantages include a mechanism for automatically collecting and recording data on the amount of green power generated and avoided CO2 emissions, substantially reducing the effort and cost that go into collecting data and ensuring the green status of the bond’s proceeds. The panel participants noted the further potential for this technology, pointing out that it could be used to track data for a variety of other green projects and may have applications that extend beyond green bonds to other types of financial instruments.

Schematic of the Digitally Tracked Green Bond mechanism

However, the panel also identified some challenges that must be addressed for digital bonds to achieve further growth as an ESG investment option. These include tax amendments, introduction of DVP settlement, broadening of the market participant base, better secondary-market functionalities, and the inclusion of digital bonds in domestic bond benchmark indexes*2.

Of these challenges, the ones considered particularly high priority are the tax amendments (specifically, changes to provisions in the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation that govern withholding tax exemptions*3, and to provisions in the Income Tax Act that govern tax exemptions for public institutions, etc.*4) and the broadening of the market participant base, which includes securities firms and custodians.

JPXI and Nomura will continue to engage with market stakeholders in order to address these challenges and pursue the possibilities that digital bonds offer in ESG investing. The two companies hope that the GDTB mechanism will prove useful for a wide range of issuers and investors, and that this report will assist in the development of sustainable financing in Japan.

64 organizations in total (including some that are not listed here)

Report
Press release