Bahrain Bourse CEO talks about ESG during AFCM Annual Conference

Bahrain Bourse CEO talks about ESG during AFCM Annual Conference

Mubasher: The CEO of Bahrain Bourse, Khalifa Al Khalifa, said he got involved in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) back in 2017.

Al Khalifa said during the Arab Federation of Capital Markets (AFCM) annual conference in Oman: “We went on a road trip to one of the countries in Europe and met some of the asset managers, and just back then, the thought of the ESG was could see the ESG in the news, so my thought was just it is flavour of the month, don’t pay much attention to it.”

The CEO added: “And as soon as we sat with the asset managers, we wanted to get on the prestation as a hard copy, then two of the asset managers – they don’t know each other – just refused it and said no it’s our policy to be as digital as possible, and I was surprised that to this level they are dedicated to it.”

Al Khalifa noted: “I kept reading more and understanding more on the ESG, which led me to believe that it is something essential and has to be embedded in the organization, whether it is the operations, management, and obviously both levels. So, we went back and started