Unmet business financing needs weigh on the growth potential of the private sector in several EMDEs, with firms identifying access to finance as the biggest obstacle to business in regions like the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and Pacific and South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
EMDEs face particular challenges in meeting financing needs for the climate transition, with a potential cumulative shortfall of over USD 10 trillion by 2050 in investment for EMDEs excluding China.
These pressures are compounded by declines in ODA flows, rising public debt sustainability challenges, and increasing debt servicing costs. A record number of EMDEs are currently facing default or are at a very high risk of default.
As such, developing efficient, well-functioning domestic capital markets is of growing importance for EMDEs. Most have existing capital markets, though these vary greatly in size and importance to the real economy, are often underutilised and underdeveloped, and are not harnessed towards development, climate, and biodiversity goals.
Many EMDEs have policy levers already available to deepen capital markets and promote private sector funding to the real economy. These include focusing on market fundamentals such as corporate governance regimes and policies for institutional and retail investors and MSMEs, leveraging state activity in markets through sovereign bond issuance and state enterprise ownership, harnessing digital innovation, and supporting flows into sustainable finance.
Financial authorities in EMDEs can also take clear actions to integrate development, climate and biodiversity considerations into capital market activity, in close co-operation with MDBs, donors and international organisations, and in coordination with other financial authorities in OECD countries pursuing similar efforts.
The OECD is building on its decades-long engagements with EMDEs on capital market issues to support efforts to enhance market-based financing. Key actions include:
Supporting capital markets development in Africa and Asia: by convening regional players to help develop domestic markets, and drive integration into global financial markets. The work is underpinned by regional analysis, identifying structural challenges to capital market development and providing policy guidance tailored to the needs of countries in these regions.
Supporting financial regulators and supervisors in EMDEs: by providing tailored analysis, dialogue platforms and capacity building to help financial authorities (including central banks and financial supervisors) scale domestic green, sustainable financial markets for clean energy.
Supporting access to sustainable finance for SMEs in EMDEs: by identifying scalable good practices in financing and non-financial support for SMEs (including to enhance SMEs access to clean energy) and fostering convergence and interoperability on SME sustainability reporting.
Supporting emerging markets and developing economies in developing their local capital markets
Across the world, capital markets provide important means to finance businesses and the real economy. Efficient capital markets facilitate capital formation, foster innovation through technology adoption, and enable scalability across economic sectors. They can drive the investment, sustained economic growth, and productivity gains necessary to underpin rising living standards. Increased use of market-based financing such as the public equity and corporate bonds can also shore up resilience and support dynamism, adaptability and competitiveness in economies.
At the same time, efficient and well-functioning capital markets alone cannot deliver on all elements of countries’ development, climate and biodiversity goals, including the investment needed to realise these. Additional considerations are required to fully leverage market-based financing and to promote capital market activity in support of these goals.
Capital markets as a growing priority for EMDE development
Most countries host or engage in some form of existing capital market activity; and most countries – EMDEs and advanced economies (AEs) alike – have a strategic objective to increase the level of capital market activity. However, beyond general economic benefits, EMDEs face specific existing and emerging issues which make capital market development a particular priority.
Business financing shortfalls
Unmet business financing needs are acute in several EMDE jurisdictions, weighing on the growth potential of the private sector. In the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey, firms identified access to finance as the biggest obstacle to business in the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and Pacific and South Asia, at around 17%, and in sub-Saharan Africa, at over 30%.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are a major component of many EMDE economies, but the least likely to be able to access adequate traditional bank financing. They represent around 90 percent of businesses in EMDEs on average. In EMDEs across Asian economies, for example, MSMEs rely predominately on bank credit, even as bank lending is especially low in some jurisdictions, or lending requirements such as collateral particularly high (Figure 1). General constraints include high perceived credit risk, underdeveloped credit history, weak collateral systems, and high levels of informality and limited formal financial records, especially among micro enterprises.
Note: In Panel B the information refers to 2023 or latest available information.
Source: ADB Asia Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Monitor2024; World Bank Enterprise Surveys
Climate and Infrastructure investment gaps
EMDEs face particular challenges in meeting financing needs for climate action and broader development, just transition considerations. Assuming climate investment growth in both public and private sector continue along recent trends, EMDEs excluding the People’s Republic of China (hereafter ‘China’) would face a cumulative shortfall of over 10 trillion by 2050 in investment to meet net-zero transition goals, while AEs would meet these targets in 2041 (Figure 2)
Note: Public sector investment includes the new COP29 development finance goals agreed on in November 2024.
Source: OECD Global Debt Report 2025, IEA proprietary database.
Capital markets will likely need to play a strong role across EMDEs in financing investment for the climate transition. Were the public sector to provide the necessary additional financing to meet the investment requirements rapidly in EMDEs, all else being equal, public debt levels would rise significantly, from 59% in 2024 to 75% in 2040, roughly the limit of fiscal expansion, with a remaining USD 1.6 trillion shortfall. This implies a strong role for capital markets across EMDEs in financing investment for the climate transition.
Volatility in international financial flows
The impacts of rising geopolitical uncertainty have also changed the external funding environment for EMDEs. Monthly portfolio capital flows to emerging markets have remained volatile, with debt and equity flows fluctuating significantly month-to-month since 2021, with frequent capital outflows during periods of tightening global financial conditions (Figure 3). This volatility highlights the challenges EMDEs face in relying on foreign portfolio flows as a stable source of financing.
Source: OECD Monthly Capital Flow Dataset
At the same time, lower income and developing economies in particular face declines in official development assistance (ODA) flows, which fell by over 7 per cent between 2023 and 2024, with further declines expected as donors reprioritise public expenditure in the face of mounting fiscal pressures. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the World Bank estimates that ODA make up approximately 3 per cent of regional gross national income, and plays a vital role in financing basic services, infrastructure, and climate resilience.
Rising public debt sustainability challenges
EMDE sovereign debt issuance has grown substantially in recent years, accelerating in particular after the Covid-19 pandemic on the back of large fiscal responses. A record number of EMDEs are currently facing default or are at a very high risk of default, and lower-income or at-risk countries are often among those issuers with high levels of foreign-denominated debt, often in USD. However, the true cost of this foreign-denominated debt often exceeds that of local currency debt once exchange rate volatility and longer maturities are taken into account (Figure 4).
Over the past two decades, some high-risk EMDEs experienced up to 80% currency depreciation against the US dollar, leading to significantly higher debt servicing costs. For these countries, FX-adjusted yields to maturity on USD-denominated bonds exceeded 15% during recent tightening cycles. In this context, strengthening domestic local currency debt markets is essential for enhancing debt sustainability, as is developing the market’s capacity to absorb such instruments.
Note: All cost measures are median values for each group. Carry costs for local currency (LC) debt are the stock-weighted average yield to maturity. For foreign currency (FC) debt, carry costs are the yield to maturity adjusted by the FX rate ratio from issuance to year-end. Total costs of matured FC debt are the internal rate of return of cash flows converted to local currency at each cash flow approximate date, with each year including only securities that matured in that year.
Source: OECD Global Debt Report 2025 and LSEG
The state of capital markets in EMDEs
Capital markets already constitute a segment of the business financing environment in many EMDEs, though their level of importance, size, level of activity and stage of development vary greatly between economies, and between and within regions. EMDEs in some regions, notably Asia, have experienced considerable growth in their use of market-based financing over the past two decades, while in others such as sub-Saharan Africa capital markets generally remain relatively underutilised and underdeveloped.
Though diverse, the structural features present across many EMDE capital markets serve to orient objectives for market development and inform the policy tools and measures to achieve them. The following analysis demonstrates that many EMDEs have public venues and some level of capital market activity to form the foundation of further market growth, though the size and level of activity is uneven. Some areas have seen robust growth in IPOs in recent years, in contrast to many advanced economies. Sovereign bond issuance has also increased substantially in recent years. Across the board, domestic and regional specificities present both challenges and opportunities in terms of investor demand, the supply of marketable securities, ownership profiles and the role of sovereign issuers.
Public equity and debt markets
68 of the 106 equity markets worldwide are established in EMDEs, with these markets making up just over half total listed companies globally, with Asian markets in particular home to a considerable number of listings (Figure 5). EMDEs, led by China, have been a particularly important source of growth in the number of listed companies worldwide since 2008, offering a counterbalance to a structural decline in listed companies in advanced economies.
Note: In Panel A, the size of the bubble is proportional to each country’s or region's share in the combined market capitalisation.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series dataset.
Growth market listings, generally used by smaller enterprises and/or those in an earlier stage of the business lifecycle, have been a particular driver of this growth. Between 2019 and 2023, growth market IPOs far outstripped those on main markets, though such growth is unbalanced between regions, with Asia (and in particular China) accounting for over two-thirds of all growth market IPOs and three quarters of the capital raised globally during that period. At the same time, and despite this growth in aggregate listings across EMDEs, the proportion of capital raised in public equity markets as a share of GDP has been in decline for some time, echoing trends in advanced economies.
Ownership profiles also make up an important feature of EMDE capital markets. In public equity markets, the public sector is the most prominent owner of EMDE listed companies, with an average holding of 31%, compared to a worldwide average of 10%. Conversely, institutional investors are significantly underrepresented as owners of EMDE equities, with 12% ownership compared to an average of 47% worldwide. Ownership in EMDEs also tends to be more concentrated, with the top three shareholders owning on more than half of the capital in 60% of companies, leaving limited available shares to the general public and to institutional investors and potentially depressing free float and liquidity.
EMDEs have also experienced considerable growth in the use of debt financing through corporate bonds since 2008. Outstanding corporate bond debt in EMDEs currently stands at 8.5 times what it was in 2008 (Figure 6). Here too, growth has been uneven between jurisdiction and regions, with China accounting for a large share.
Note: Figures cover both financial and non-financials.
Source: OECD Capital Market Series Dataset.
Sovereign bonds
Sovereign bond markets have grown significantly across all EMDE income groups since 2008, with outstanding EMDE sovereign bond debt reaching nearly USD 12 trillion (around 30% of GDP) in 2024, up from less than USD 4 trillion in 2008 (around 20% of GDP). Annual issuance has grown across all EMDE income groups over that time, with issuance in low-income countries growing the fastest, increasing by a factor of 12 (Figure 7). Despite this rapid growth, LIC sovereign bond markets remain underdeveloped, with gross issuance-to GDP ratios significantly lower than in other income groups, reaching only 4% of GDP in 2024, compared to nearly double that amount for all EMDEs.
Note: Only the GDP values of sovereigns issuing in that year were included in the denominator of the right-hand side figures.
Source: OECD (2025[1]) OECD Global Debt Report 2025, https://doi.org/10.1787/8ee42b13-en.
At the same time maturities remain shorter than in advanced economies, and some countries still rely heavily on foreign currency-denominated bonds, with shallow local currency bond markets. Among EMDEs excluding China and India, foreign currency-denominated debt represents approximately 20% of the debt stock, while for smaller EMDEs, foreign currency debt has made up around 40% of total outstanding debt since 2018.
Recognising their value and growing strategic importance, many EMDEs have undertaken initiatives and reforms to develop their capital markets. Reforms and initiatives are aimed lifting market capacity, including holistic capital market strategies, amended regulatory and listing requirements, the establishment of alternative trading platforms, and reducing free-float requirements, among other measures. Regional stock market integration projects in are also ongoing, including in Africa and Latin America.
Generally, these interventions aim to balance cost and flexibility in market participation with the need for disclosure, transparency and investor protection, as well as approaches increasingly emphasising proportionality in supervision and requirements. They aim to deepen liquidity, expand and diversify the investor base, harness emerging technologies, and align regulation and governance frameworks with international practices.
This following section highlights foundational areas of well-functioning capital markets as well as specific priorities to unlock capital markets in support of development, climate and biodiversity goals, drawn from OECD policy instruments and practices, which represent important policy levers for EMDEs to strengthen market fundamentals and unlock finance and investment for development, climate and biodiversity goals.
Corporate governance regimes
An effective disclosure system that ensures transparency is a key element of market-based oversight of companies. By providing consistent, timely, accurate, and comparable information it is essential for shareholders to make investment decisions and exercise their rights in an informed manner. It is also a powerful mechanism for shaping corporate behaviour and safeguarding investor interests, which in turn fosters trust and attracts further capital. Conversely, inadequate disclosure and opaque practices can lead to unethical conduct and erode market integrity, disrupt market efficiency, raise the cost of capital, and lead to suboptimal resource allocation. Sustainability-related disclosure has become an increasingly important component of such frameworks, especially in relation to strategies and material opportunities and risks related to the climate transition. However, SMEs face particular challenges in reporting on their sustainability performance, due to their limited resources to gather the information required. Addressing this issue through support to firms or simplified disclosure requirements can help ease the burden on smaller firms and enable them to tap into market-based finance for sustainability investments.
There has been substantial movement over the past decade across all jurisdictions to strengthen legal, regulatory and disclosure frameworks, including in EMDEs. Implementation monitoring of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, the international standard in this area, shows that these corporate governance frameworks generally include legislation, regulations, stock exchange rules, self-regulatory mechanisms, contractual agreements, voluntary initiatives, and business practices shaped by each country’s context, history, and traditions. As a result, the ideal balance of these components is adaptable and differs across countries. Public authorities should possess strong enforcement and sanctioning powers to discourage unethical conduct and support sound corporate governance practice, private actions can also serve as a means of enforcement. It is also critical that legal and regulatory frameworks influencing corporate governance align with the rule of law and be transparent, consistent, and enforceable.
Sovereign bond markets
With the vast majority of EMDEs active as sovereign bond issuers, the design of these markets and the instruments issued can play a role in developing domestic markets. Sovereign bonds play a role in acting as a reference for the pricing of other assets and providing a liquid and lower-risk asset for use in a range of financial operations. At the same time, as mentioned earlier, smaller markets who mainly borrow in foreign currencies are more exposed to changes in monetary policy elsewhere.
Sovereign issuers in EMDEs should prioritise deepening local currency bond markets wherever possible, to reduce reliance on external debt and mitigate exchange rate risks. This requires strong market infrastructure, transparency, investor diversity, a credible yield curve, and stability. Policies such as developing short-term funding markets, supporting liquidity through regular issuance and benchmarking, adopting predictable and programmatic issuance practises, cultivating strong investor relations, and building a yield curve with multiple liquid benchmark maturities can support this endeavour. Deepening local currency bond markets is particularly critical to unlock private financing for capital-intensive low-emissions infrastructure projects such as renewable power projects.
EMDEs face higher borrowing costs due to low sovereign credit ratings and often greater exposure to climate change risks. Lower ratings can also limit access to affordable climate finance with initial yields for long-term bonds further impeding climate financing efforts in these regions. High borrowing costs constrain investments in renewable energy, climate adaptation, and mitigation projects, worsening climate impacts such as nature loss and increasing exposure to climate-related shocks. This creates a vicious cycle where financial instability can further restrict climate finance flows. Identifying and addressing flaws in credit rating methodologies which disproportionately effect EMDEs, and better integrating climate risks and resilience factors, is critical to mobilising private capital for development, climate and biodiversity goals in EMDEs.
State ownership
The public sector is a large investor in EMDE stock markets, often reflecting the fact that countries with large state-owned sectors use partial stock market listing as a preferred method of disinvestment by the state and to support capital markets development. Such listings have been found to catalyse capital market development by increasing the depth and liquidity of the market, broadening the investor base and promoting capital markets as a viable source of financing. Listed SOEs often experience an increase in investment levels following their IPOs, reflecting the role of public markets in supporting investment by providing access to capital.
The presence of outside shareholders can have a disciplining effect, reinforcing board independence and professionalisation, increasing transparency and disclosure, and driving performance through a more increased focus on maximising shareholder value. For listing to be successful, the regulatory environment, including supervision and enforcement, is important to ensure predictability and transparency for non-state investors. The OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises recommend that regulation and enforcement recognise the rights of all shareholders, including minority and foreign shareholders, and ensure shareholders’ equitable treatment and equal access to corporate information, and that the state as shareholder must be professionalised and adequately shielded from undue political interference.
Still, innovative financing models can enable private sector financing for development and climate goals, without changing the public ownership structure. In the power sector for instance, insufficient transmission grid capacity and financing have become the largest bottleneck worldwide to enable grid-scale renewables integration. And while the transmission grid often remains a monopoly, even in liberalised power markets, upcoming OECD research suggests that grid financing models can introduce new actors and private capital in the transmission space.1
Developing institutional investor demand
Insurance companies and pension funds are essential as major institutional investors in enhancing capital markets by offering long-term, stable capital sources and shaping the development of financial markets, investing premiums and contributions over extended periods in long-term productive assets to fulfil future commitments. They also contribute to the stability of capital markets, holding assets for extended periods.
With a generally low level of institutional investor participation, EMDEs can consider mechanisms to enhance insurance penetration and participation in pension schemes. Support can be given for portfolio diversification and investing in productive assets, through enhancing asset availability in the market, reducing regulatory constrains to invest in alternative assets and conducting favourable reforms to invest in productive assets.
Financial technologies and digitalisation
While financial technologies have been progressively deployed across AE and EMDE capital markets, Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to be particularly disruptive. The adoption of AI innovation by capital market participants can encourage more dynamic and competitive capital markets, allowing for better competitive dynamics and for new innovative products/services designed for underserved parts of the population such as MSMEs, and enhance the regulatory and supervisory tools used by financial authorities. At the same time, AI also exacerbates risks related to bias and discrimination, data privacy and confidentiality, market manipulation and cyber-risk, and risks for operational resilience.
Regulatory authorities both in EMDE and AEs alike are deploying tools such as innovation facilitators to foster closer collaboration between market participants and authorities, addressing regulatory barriers or gaps, and sending a positive signal about the commitment to responsible innovation. Such initiatives can contribute to the growth of capital markets by accelerating the adoption of AI innovation and strengthening investor confidence, however their design must be well-considered, technology neutral and avoid regulatory fragmentation. EMDE policy makers should consider supporting long-term public investment and encouraging private investment in research and development, including interdisciplinary efforts, to spur innovation in trustworthy AI in EMDEs, in line with the OECD AI Principles.
Digitalisation and AI create both opportunities and challenges for development, climate and biodiversity goals in EMDEs, as in developed countries. On the one hand, digitalisation for instance offers opportunities, e.g. to improve tracking origins of economic activities with biodiversity-related impacts such as fisheries, and policy makers can improve access to companies’ biodiversity impact data (Green Digital Finance Alliance, 2020[2]). Digitalisation can also help securitise and tokenise small biodiversity-related financial assets in EMDEs, using blockchain-backed nature-related asset tokens to value, certify, aggregate and monetise biodiversity assets (Nature Tech Collective, 2024[3]). One the other hand, AI and digitalisation creates challenges for climate goals, which EMDEs and advanced economies alike need to address. The computational needs of AI systems are increasing, raising concerns in terms of energy use and associated GHG emissions increases (OECD, 2022[4])).2 Yet AI can transform the energy sector. Ensuring affordable clean energy supply is a crucial determinant of AI development (IEA, 2025[5])). More broadly, policy makers need to better assess and manage risks and opportunities associated financial technologies and digitalisation in terms of development, climate and biodiversity goals (OECD, 2019[6]).3
Financial consumer protection and literacy
Financial consumer protection and financial literacy are important prerequisites for an effective participation of retail investors in capital markets. Effective consumer or investor protection frameworks are essential to building trust and confidence, for example by addressing information asymmetries so that investors receive clear and accurate information, and by mitigating conflicts of interest and ensuring that financial products are suitable to the target market. Increases in financial literacy are positively correlated with participation in the stock market, and help investors to better understand risks and returns of investment products, equip individuals to better manage their investments, including in sustainability-related products.
The G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the OECD Recommendation on Financial Literacy are the two global standards in these areas. They can be applied by all jurisdictions, including both developed economies and EMDEs, and in all financial sectors. The Principles stress the importance of effective disclosure to inform consumers of the key risks and product features; responsible conduct by providers and intermediaries; of quality financial products for retail investors; and of having mechanisms in place to ensure that investors’ assets are protected against scams, fraud and misuse, and that channels for seeking redress are available in case of need. The Recommendation sets out measures relating to the importance of strategic approaches to financial literacy, in particular national strategies that allow all stakeholder efforts to be coordinated, and the design and delivery of financial literacy programmes and initiatives, including on savings and investments.
Policy makers and oversight bodies have an important role to play to improve financial literacy specifically in support of development, climate and biodiversity goals. This is because studies suggest that even in countries with high level of financial literacy overall, sustainable finance literacy remains low (Filippini et al., 2024[7]). A growing number of recent studies have highlighted the role of financial literacy in promoting environmental sustainability, responsible consumption, borrowing and savings behaviours, as well as investment and risk management in the face of climate uncertainties (Zulfikri and Faqihah, 2024[8]; Salahodjaev and Sadikov, 2025[9]). In the case of climate adaptation and resilience for instance, lessons from existing country experiences suggest that financial literacy can raises farmers' likelihood of borrowing to mitigate weather shocks (e.g. in Colombia), with significant benefits for EMDEs in terms of improving access to financing to MSMEs (Cano and Castro-Campos, 2025[10]). And financial consumer demand and interest in climate-, biodiversity-related and broader sustainable finance products and services is increasing globally (OECD, 2023[11]).
Supporting access to finance for MSMEs and start-ups
Given the importance of MSMEs and start-ups in EMDEs, their inclusion in capital markets is a priority for sustainable economic growth, job creation and scaling economic activities. The presence of micro- and SMEs in capital markets can serve to deepen markets by diversifying the instruments, investors and institutions participating in the ecosystem. At the same time, financial diversification reduces the vulnerability of these firms to changes in credit market conditions, strengthens their capital structure, provides growth opportunities and boosts long-term investment (OECD, 2025[12]).
The OECD Recommendation on SME Financing, as well as the 2022 Updated G20/OECD High-Level Principles on SME Financing, emphasise the importance of supporting financial diversification for SMEs. The Recommendation encourages the development of hybrid tools and equity and quasi-equity instruments to strengthen SMEs’ capital structure and boost investment in innovative start-ups and high-growth SMEs, while giving special consideration to venture and private equity financing, including capital for seed, early and later stage investments. It encourages governments to adopt principles of risk sharing for government-supported SME financing instruments by fostering programmes that help catalyse and leverage the provision of private resources, especially in risk capital markets, recognising that, under certain conditions, public schemes can be effective in kick-starting the offer of SME financing (OECD, 2022[13]; 2023[14]).
Specific financing instruments and broader enabling conditions are needed to unlock finance for MSMEs in support of climate, development and biodiversity goals in EMDEs. Policy makers, with support from IOs and development partners, and in close collaboration with industry associations and other stakeholders, need to identify specific instruments and enabling conditions required to unlock access to financing for MSMEs in support of such goals, especially in support of a just clean energy transition. This is critical to ensure energy access and affordability, economic competitiveness, job creation and broader poverty reduction considerations A key challenge is the high upfront capital cost of low-emissions infrastructure projects such as renewable power or energy efficiency, a major deterrent for businesses that operate on tight margins and rely on steady cash flow. In addition, there is growing recognition of the high vulnerability of MSMEs to climate- and nature-related risks in EMDEs, raising the need to also prioritise MSME financing for climate resilience and nature protection.
Strengthening domestic sustainable financial markets
Developing sustainable finance regulation, guidance and financial instruments is necessary to address the shortfalls EMDEs face in climate transition financing. This includes supporting credible climate transition planning, relevant climate- and broader sustainability-related disclosures, as well as assessment of climate- and nature-related financial risks, for example through climate scenario analysis and climate stress tests. Market authorities can also help address biodiversity- and broader nature-related financial risks, including by assessing nature-related dependencies and impacts, their associated economic risks and impacts, and transmission channels to the financial sector. The OECD’s Supervisory Framework for Nature-related Financial Risks can support EMDE efforts in this area.
The development of appropriate sustainable financial instruments can encourage investment for climate, development and biodiversity tailored to specific sectors, technologies, businesses, country- and regional contexts, including market-based financial products and services as well as blended finance and other risk mitigation instruments. In clean energy for instance, specific innovative instruments such as energy savings insurance and energy efficiency insurance can promote investment in energy efficiency in EMDEs. Coordination among market authorities and participants, as well as building general capacity across actors, remains a particular priority in the development of such instruments.
In recognition of the increasingly central role of capital markets in building prosperity, driving economic development and adapting to emerging challenges, the OECD is building on its decades-long engagements with EMDEs on capital market issues to support efforts to enhance market-based financing.
The OECD-ADBI Tokyo Roundtable on Capital Market and Financial Reform in Asia is an annual forum bringing together advanced and EMDE Asian economies around policies and financial market reforms to drive economic competitiveness in the region. It’s 24th edition was held on 26-27 June 2025.
The OECD will launch an annual Roundtable on Banking and Capital Markets in Africa in November 2025, focusing on developing domestic markets across the continent and driving integration into global financial markets. For the first time in 2025, these workstreams are underpinned by dedicated regional reports – Asia Capital Markets Report and Africa Capital Markets Report - identifying structural challenges to capital market development and providing concrete policy guidance tailored to the needs of countries in these regions.
The OECD, through its Clean Energy Finance and Investment Mobilisation (CEFIM) Programme, supports financial authorities in EMDEs in strengthening domestic green, sustainable financial markets for clean energy and building capacity of financial market institutions to invest in clean energy projects, including through tailored analytical work, knowledge-sharing, stakeholder engagement as well as capacity building activities.4 The OECD CEFIM Programme, jointly with international partners, will host a Roundtable on the Role of Financial Regulators and Supervisors for Mobilising Private Finance for Clean Energy and Climate Action in EMDEs on 2 July 2025 on the margins of FfD4.
Through its Platform on Financing SMEs for Sustainability, the OECD supports public development banks and other sustainable finance ecosystem actors to strengthen the provision and uptake of sustainable finance by SMEs. The Platform is advancing work on fostering convergence and interoperability in sustainability data requests to SMEs from financial institutions, through an assessment of existing sustainability standards and frameworks and the development of guidance on SME sustainability reporting (OECD, 2025[15]; Kuzmanovic, Koreen and Honegger, forthcoming[16]). The Platform is also working to enable the scaling up of good practices in the provision of public financing and non-financial support to facilitate SME greening (OECD, Forthcoming[17]).
References
[10] Cano and Castro-Campos (2025), The role of financial literacy in climate mitigation: The case of central Colombia, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101164.
[7] Filippini et al. (2024), Sustainable finance literacy and the determinants of sustainable investing, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2024.107167.
[2] Green Digital Finance Alliance (2020), Fintech for Biodiversity: A Global Landscape, https://www.naturefinance.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/fintech-for-biodiversity-final-30-32020-1.pdf.
[5] IEA (2025), Energy and AI, https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/34eac603-ecf1-464f-b813-2ecceb8f81c2/EnergyandAI.pdf.
[16] Kuzmanovic, M., M. Koreen and G. Honegger (forthcoming), OECD Guidance Note on SME Sustainability Reporting.
[3] Nature Tech Collective (2024), 5 trends shaping nature fintech, https://www.naturetechcollective.org/stories/5-trends-shaping-nature-fintech.
[15] OECD (2025), Fostering convergence in SME sustainability reporting, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ffbf16fb-en.
[1] OECD (2025), Global Debt Report 2025: Financing Growth in a Challenging Debt Market Environment, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/8ee42b13-en.
[12] OECD (2025), OECD Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs Scoreboard: 2025 Highlights, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/64c9063c-en.
[11] OECD (2023), Financial Consumers and Sustainable Finance: Policy Implications and Approaches, OECD Business and Finance Policy Papers, https://doi.org/10.1787/bf84ff64-en.
[14] OECD (2023), OECD Recommendation on SME Financing, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0493.
[13] OECD (2022), 2022 Updated G20/OECD High-level Principles on SME Financing, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/cd1f7694-en.
[4] OECD (2022), Measuring the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence compute and applications: The AI footprint, OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 341, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/7babf571-en.
[6] OECD (2019), Using digital technologies to improve the design and enforcement of public policies, OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 274, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/99b9ba70-en.
[17] OECD (Forthcoming), Scaling up public financing and non-financial support for SME sustainability.
[18] OECD (2026, forthcoming), Transmission Grid Financing: Lessons from International Case Studies and Toolkit for Policymakers, OECD Publishing.
[9] Salahodjaev and Sadikov (2025), Financial literacy and environmental sustainability: a cross-country test, https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2025.1514393.
[8] Zulfikri and Faqihah (2024), Financial Literacy For Sustainable Futures : Climate Change Perspective, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4844623.
Contact
Serdar CELIK, Head of Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs (serdar.celik@oecd.org)
Oliver GARRET-JONES, Policy Analyst, Financial Markets Unit, Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs (oliver.garrett-jones@oecd.org)
← 1. Upcoming new analysis of selected case studies suggests that Independent Transmission Projects and the generation-linked transmission model, offering bidders to build and operate a specific transmission infrastructure for a stable and long-term fee, can be both flexible and cost-efficient (OECD, 2026, forthcoming[18]).
← 2. There is no AI without energy: a typical data centre dedicated to AI consumes as much electricity as 100 000 households, and the largest ones being built nowadays will consume 20 times as much (IEA, 2025[5])).
← 3. Policy makers notably need to better assess and measure the direct environmental impacts of developing, using and disposing of AI systems and related equipment, and the indirect costs and benefits of using AI applications, including through setting measurement standards and improving data collection, transparency and impact assessment (OECD, 2022[4])).
← 4. Such as the Financial Supervisory Authority of Indonesia (OJK) and the central bank of the Philippines (BSP). In addition to country-specific support in selected EMDEs (Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Viet Nam), OECD CEFIM is developing new analysis, knowledge sharing and capacity building platforms available to a broader set of ODA eligible countries.