rundheersing bheenick : “ thou art translated ” address by mr rundheersing bheenick, governor of the bank of mauritius, on the occasion of the re - branding of first city bank ltd to bank one ltd, port louis, 8 august 2008. * * * a very good evening to all of you. today is a propitious day. indeed a palindromic day. a day when forwards and backwards it remains the same. we have the quintuple palindromic zeros of the olympics, opening today. then today itself of course is palindromic ( the triple 8 ’ s of today ’ s date : the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year of this century ). so i am delighted to be present here on this occasion when we witness the translation of the first city bank ltd into bank one ltd. the first bank into bank number one! how fitting a symmetry for a palindromic day! my name is bheenick. manou bheenick. and i am a double o too ; or perhaps a double o three. for those of you who are familiar with the opus of ian fleming, that ’ s one better than the eponymous james bond. i have three licences ; and for the very first time, i shall be operating all three licences on the same propitious day. i have a licence to print money : we are always doing a bit of that, though in the name of st. milton, not too much! then i have two other licences : a licence to open banks and a licence to kill them. mercifully, today i am operating those in reverse order. killing off one bank and then opening bank one! here, i have to confess to a secret dream … a monthly recurring dream, about applying this power to certain of my committees operating at the central bank! but let us examine how the translation procedure for this bank has come about. our hosts have had, if i may use the phrase, a rather chequered past. no secret this. first in the guise of bcci, which became quite notorious in international banking. then a makeover to become delphis bank ltd, whose promoter seems to have done a fair bit to live up to bcci ’ s unsavoury reputation. then transmuted to be fashioned as the first city bank which became the first bank in the city which i had to worry

you to consider the following two dimensions that stretch beyond pure cost - benefit imperatives : the intertemporal dimension, meaning that such adaptations are likely to yield'green'benefits in the form of a less climatesensitive environment and that stretch beyond pure pecuniary ones ; and the intergenerational dimension, meaning that we are bequeathing to generations of tomorrow a cleaner and safer environment. looking at things from the vantage point of both dimensions, i can assert that the benefits far outweigh the costs and will result in positive externalities. in fact, looking back 20 years from now or beyond, finance pundits will be in a better position to ascertain the'green component'from various returns on investment or on capital metrics. i understand that the importance of green finance is gradually increasing in the banking sector. as at 30 june 2023, the banking sector's total exposure in mur to sustainable projects was estimated at rs 6. 9bn, compared to rs4. 2bn a year earlier. ladies and gentlemen at this juncture, it is imperative that we follow the international best practices to uphold our reputation as a trusted international financial centre. investors will require adequate confidence to channel funds to our jurisdiction. a robust disclosure framework will need to take centre stage to calm down the nerves of potential investors regarding the possibility of greenwashing. on that front, mauritius cannot lag behind in terms of the implementation of globally agreed standards and practices. companies would have to master the reporting in accordance with the requirements of the international sustainability standards board, more specifically sustainability standards 1 and 2. failure to do so may result in small countries such as ours losing not only on climate finance flows, but on revenue as well as exports are likely to face difficulties fitting into value chains of developed country industries because of upstream climate reporting exigencies. i take this opportunity to call upon listed and unlisted companies to start reflecting on how to take on board esg considerations in their businesses and strategies in anticipation of the future phasing in of ifrs s1 and s2 disclosure requirements in mauritius. i am informed that the financial reporting council will hold a workshop in 3 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches may 2024 on how to operationalise and implement the ifrs foundation's international sustainability standards board ( issb ) s1 and s2 standards. ladies and gentlemen let me now provide you with some insights on climate change at the level of the bank