The Slovenian central bank said on March 27 that it has increased the share of investments in green, social and sustainability bonds by 6 percentage points (pp) to 7%, or almost €280mn in the last five years.

This move is part of the bank's efforts to align its investments with socially responsible and sustainable practices. The central bank's plan is to further increase the share of such bonds in the future.

Despite the volume of its own investments remaining unchanged at around €3.8bn at the end of 2022, the bank has significantly increased its investments in green, social and sustainable bonds, the Bank of Slovenia said in a statement.

Since 2018, when such investments amounted to just €32mn or less than 1% of the bank's total investments they have increased to almost €280mn by the end of 2022.

Green bonds account for the largest share with almost 70%, followed by social bonds with a 26% share and sustainable bonds with a 4% share.

The bank has also excluded certain companies from its list of suitable issuers of corporate bonds since 2020. This includes companies from the tobacco and arms-related industries, as well as those linked to corruption, causing major environmental damage, or violating human rights.

The bank's long-term goal is to get as close as possible to zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of its own investments. To achieve this, the bank has set two medium-term goals to be accomplished by the end of 2025.

Firstly, it aims to increase investments in green, social and sustainable bonds to at least €400mn and secondly, to visibly reduce the carbon footprint of its investments in private sector issuers.

This will be achieved by significantly tightening the criteria for placing companies on the list of eligible issuers of non-financial debt and by defining strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions within its other investments in private sector issuers.