Reserve Management and Sustainability: The Case for Green Bonds?

Abstract

Central banks' frameworks for managing foreign reserves have traditionally balanced a triad of objectives: liquidity, safety and return. Pursuing these objectives involves explicit trade-offs. More of an emphasis on returns, for instance, may require central banks to sacrifice some of the safety and liquidity of their overall holdings. Most recently, central banks have shown significant interest in incorporating environmental sustainability considerations into their policy frameworks, including their reserve management. This paper first explores whether sustainability considerations would support a tetrad of reserve management objectives, by drawing on the results of a recent BIS Survey on Reserve Management and Sustainability. It then illustrates how central banks might analyse (and weigh) all four objectives in allocating part of their foreign exchange reserves to green bonds using currently available market data.

Keywords: central banks, green bonds, reserve management, sustainability

JEL Classification: E58, F31, G11, G17