ESG
LATEST ARTICLES
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AsiamoneyAs banks focus more on climate adaptation across their businesses, are they conceding that mitigation efforts are futile?
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The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
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MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
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Farmland acquisition for transition agriculture has proved attractive to the climate-focused investment management franchises of large asset managers. Will real-asset investors follow suit?
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Corporate governance challenges and a lack of domestic demand have constrained ESG issuance in India so far. The blowout dual-tranche domestic rupee sovereign green bond in January could be set to change that.
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Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia is considered a pioneer in the resources-rich country. Its momentum on sustainability has gained more steam over the years.
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India is chipping away at the many obstacles on its way to achieving carbon neutrality by 2070. The path is uphill, but will its efforts pay off?
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The community of economies going green in a hurry has the unlikeliest of new members: coal-addicted Mongolia. Can the country shed its past?
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AsiamoneyAs more and more issuers jump on the environmental, social and governance bandwagon, it raises important questions.
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Asiamoney’s Leaders for Women survey recognises the banks that have done the most to encourage women in the workplace across Asia’s financial markets
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Men are increasingly championing the issue of diversity in banking and helping more women get a seat at the table. But their work is only just beginning.
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Four high-profile businesswomen in Japan are focusing on bringing big changes to the country’s ESG market.
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For proof of the power of female role models, look at Indonesia: the country is confounding stereotypes and narrowing the gender gap.
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Lesbian and bisexual women in banking in Asia struggle to win equal opportunities and defy society’s stereotypes.
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How are women in the banking industry paving the way for the next crop of female leaders? Asiamoney speaks to a handful of C-suite executives about their career paths and the advice they have for the younger generation.
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Women make up the majority of the workforce at banks in Thailand, but they still have a way to go before they are equally represented at the top of the banking ladder.
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Taiwan is a relatively bright spot for women in banking, largely thanks to the efforts, and sacrifices, made by bankers to break the glass ceiling.
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For all the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 crisis, it could bring some unexpected benefits for women in the banking industry, encouraging a better work-life balance.
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China Development Bank’s Rmb10 billion climate bond
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Lianhe Equator Environment Impact Assessment Co
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Research on climate-related information disclosure systems of the banking and insurance industry by CIB Research
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating
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Lisa Robins is one of the most senior women in banking in Asia, a rare example of a global business head for a multinational bank being based in the region.
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South Asia is in some ways a better place for women bankers than almost anywhere else in the region. But there are still serious problems.
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From Malaysia’s central bank to its largest commercial bank, women are at the helm — and they are actively working to promote the next crop of female leaders.
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Transaction banking has long appeared a male-dominated industry. But things have started to change.
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Private banking and wealth management, where it is common for the majority of the workforce to be women, is the only area of banking with anything like equality of representation. But women are often in junior relationship manager positions and thin out at the higher levels of management. Those women who have reached the top explain why their corner of the industry looks different to the rest and what can be done to make it better.
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The results are in and the signs are good. Asia’s banking industry appears to be making some progress on gender balance in the workforce.
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It was Chairman Mao who said Chinese women should play an equal role, working in the fields and factories: decades later, women are evident in the upper ranks of the financial sector, but seldom make it to the very top.
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Sexism, gruelling hours and a drinking culture are among the hurdles that senior female investment bankers in Asia have had to clear. The barriers are starting to come down – but not fast enough.
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Japan’s banking system is a tough place to work for ambitious women. But Kathy Matsui shows it is possible to rise to the top.
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Angel Ng has spent more than two decades working at Citi. She has now become a key role model for women in Hong Kong.
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Banks in Singapore have produced just a handful of women trailblazers in technology and artificial intelligence; can government incentives change the gender balance?
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In a matriarchal society, it is no surprise that the Philippines has a high proportion of women in finance – but there is still room at the very top for change.
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Tan Su Shan has worked in some of the biggest banks in the world’s busiest financial centres. Her varied experience has proved crucial in making her voice heard in a male-dominated industry.
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Carrie Chen learned long ago that she could prosper in her career without trying to beat male bankers at their own game.
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Asiamoney’s Leaders for Women survey recognises the banks that have done the most to encourage women in the workplace across Asia’s financial markets
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What do women need to do to reach the top of the banking ladder in Asia, where they hold just 24% of senior jobs? Executives tell Asiamoney how they have risen up the ranks – and why they think dramatic changes are needed to move the needle on diversity .
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Many Filipinos switched to digital channels during lockdown. Bankers think customers are unlikely to return to branches now that they have had a taste of what it is like to go cashless. That would be good for banks – and for financial inclusion.
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There is plenty of green finance research done by banks and credit rating agencies in China.
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Many Chinese green companies find it hard to finance their overseas Belt and Road projects, even with the guarantee of their parent firms.
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Many Chinese banks have rolled out financial products to facilitate green finance transactions. But Industrial Bank’s ‘Lv Chuang Dai’ – which literally translates as ‘green innovative loan’ – stood out because of its ability to tap a huge pool of government funding.
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Sustainable investment is still in its infancy in the Chinese onshore market. Many funds have not yet set up any environment, social and governance (ESG) -themed or green products. But China Southern Asset Management, led by general manager Yang Xiaosong, has integrated ESG principles into its own business operation as well as its investment decisions.
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It was a particularly tough year to pick the winner of this award. With China’s domestic green finance industry fast developing, multiple verification agencies have sprung up in recent years.
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating (CCXI), which has over 27 years of experience in rating domestic bonds, has long had a dominant market share in the wider onshore bond market. That now applies to the green bond market, too.
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Bank of China’s $960 million Sofr-linked deal, issued in dollars, euros and offshore renminbi, was a landmark deal in more ways than one.
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All of the big four Chinese banks – Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – have bet big on the green bond market. But ABC stands out for beating even its own lofty track record during our awards period.
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Provincial and regional banks have a huge role to play in boosting the appeal of China’s green finance industry for local governments. No other bank has done this better than the Bank of Huzhou, a local joint-stock commercial firm based in Zhejiang province.
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Industrial Bank has become the leading green finance bank in China’s domestic market.
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The first catastrophe bond to be sponsored by an Asian government has been issued by the World Bank, giving protection against damage by earthquakes and cyclones.
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Nepal’s government wants everyone to have access to a bank and has ordered a branch in each of the country’s 753 districts. Asiamoney journeys to one of the poorest and most remote parts of Asia, high in the Himalayas, to see if its grand financial-inclusion plan is working.
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Hong Kong’s belated embrace of diversity has meant a dozen of its banks are now run by women, but there’s clearly more work to be done.
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Which banks and other service providers continue to lead the charge in China green finance?
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There are many reasons why Industrial Bank beats the big state-owned banks to become the largest bank issuer of green bonds in China, but one contributing factor is its outstanding research capability.
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Wang Yao, professor and director general of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), has won international fame not only for her outstanding green finance research, but also for the prominent role she has played in promoting green finance development in China. Wang started research on green finance while working in the banking sector at the start of the millennium. There, she gained first-hand experience of how green finance worked in the real world and why it was urgently needed in China.
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Huzhou city was chosen by the central Chinese government in June 2017 as “a pilot green finance reform and innovation zone”. The city quickly took a top-down approach to accelerating the development of green finance, which has proved to very effective.
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China Chengxin Credit Management, incorporated in Beijing in 1992, is China’s largest credit rating agency. It has also established itself as a leading domestic green finance verification agency.
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In China’s green finance sector, Ernst & Young is an admired player because of its position as the largest green finance verifier and its role in promoting sustainable green finance development with expertise and innovative services.
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ICBC was not only the largest issuer of green bonds overseas among the Chinese banks last year, but also a clear leader in promoting the development of green finance outside China.
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With the robust growth of the green finance sector in China, local financial institutions and their regulators need to improve the collection and analysis of data on the environmental benefits of green finance projects.
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Industrial Bank was the largest issuer of green bonds among Chinese banks in 2018, domestically and abroad. Its guidelines and standards set out for its own green bond issues have also won recognition from international agencies.
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Bank of Huzhou was established in 1997 in the eponymous economically vibrant, medium-sized city in east China’s Zhejiang province. With total assets of Rmb52 billion ($7.5 billion) at the end of 2018, it is a small bank by Chinese standards. Yet it has emerged as a leader (at least among the numerous regional commercial banks in China) on multiple fronts in green finance.
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Industrial Bank is a pioneer in China’s green finance sector. It started making green loans in 2006 and was the first Chinese bank to adopt the Equator Principles, an internationally recognized, risk-management framework for financial institutions to determine, assess and manage environmental and social risks in projects.