BYMA presents its 2019 Sustainability Report

BYMA released its 2019 sustainability report, which reports on the work carried out during the last year with a focus on creating developments that promote good practices in environmental, social, corporate governance and financial inclusion matters. This is the second report that BYMA has prepared since the beginning of its activity as a market 3 years ago, and the Head of Corporate Governance, Julieta Artal Conte, explained: "We are absolutely committed to all aspects of sustainability. We understand the role we play as the Argentine Stock Exchange and we seek to capitalize on it, generating a multiplier effect to improve the environment in which we live. All our developments are aimed at raising awareness by example. We are part of the country's first Corporate Governance Panel and of the Sustainability Index, among other outstanding initiatives."

The report was made in line with the GRI Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative, option "Essential", and accounts for the performance of Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos, Caja de Valores, Instituto Argentino de Mercado Capitales and Tecnología de Valores.

Working Milestones 2019

The initiatives raised below collaborate with the following SDGs: Gender Equality (5); Decent Work and Economic Growth (8); Reducing Inequalities (10); Responsible Consumption and Production (12); Climate Action (13); Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (16); and Partnerships to Achieve the Goals (17).

• Sustainability
• Launch of the Panel of Social, Green and Sustainable Bonds (SVS Bonds): composed of marketable securities aimed at contributing to the improvement of the environment and/or social issues. To date, the panel is integrated by 3 negotiable bonds.
• Launch of BYMA Listings: website designed so that issuers can remotely perform multiple procedures, sending BYMA information and electronically signed documents under blockchain technology. This allowed the reduction of paper use by 90% in the first stage. In 2019, 4,359 electronic documents were received, which avoided the printing of 1,080,000 sheets in less than 1 year.
• Sustainability Index rebalancing, in which BYMA, as listed, was one of the 15 issuers with the best ESG-D performance.

• Transparency and Corporate Governance
• The Corporate Governance Panel, launched in 2018, incorporated two new issuers: Grupo Supervielle and Banco Macro within the CG level.
• BYMA received a certificate of recognition from the Win-Win Program: "Gender Equality is Good Business", for the completion and approval of the Gender Equality Action Plan regarding the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
• The Stock Exchange launched its internal and external Ethics Hotline, managed by KPMG, to channel complaints that employees and third parties external to the company may wish to submit regarding non-compliance with the principles established in BYMA's Code of Conduct and Ethics. In 2019, no corruption complaint was received nor were any cases related to corruption verified in BYMA.

• Financial Education:
• The Argentine Institute of Capital Markets (IAMC) continued expanding its training services in topics related to the Capital Markets, expanding the number and thematic diversity of its courses. The total number of students enrolled at the IAMC in the last year was 685. In addition, scholarships were granted to CNV employees.
• The BYMA Simulation program in the capital markets continued to develop in order to include the youngest in the stock market scenario. A total of 3,262 students from 121 high schools and 1,178 students from 21 universities in different provinces participated. Since its inception in 2000, the initiative has already reached more than 156,500 potential investors from all over the country.

To access the full report, enter here.