AN ASSOCIATION for sustainable finance professionals has been set up in Singapore to support the city-state’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

Known as the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA), its objectives are to develop the country’s sustainable finance ecosystem and best practices, facilitate collaboration between financial and non-financial sectors, as well as support the deepening of sustainable finance capabilities.

The workplan for its first year includes establishing five work streams focusing on carbon markets, transition finance, blended finance, natural capital and biodiversity, and taxonomy, said the association on Wednesday (Jan 24).

Speaking at its launch on the same day, the newly minted managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Chia Der Jiun, said the SSFA will be a key platform for the financial sector to collaborate and leverage on people’s expertise in various areas, including standards and solutions.

He said that the grouping can lead in developing industry best practices in areas such as carbon credits trading and transition finance, by providing feedback from the industry as standards continue to evolve.

It can also bring together financial institutions and industry sectors to identify integrated approaches to scaling the financing needed.

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“For example, it can combine financing solutions from different asset classes, including risk mitigation tools, to improve the bankability of projects. This applies not only to those in climate mitigation, but also in financing less-bankable projects related to climate adaptation and biodiversity preservation,” he added.

The association can contribute to upskilling and capacity building initiatives by guiding the relevance of courses in sustainable finance; these include training courses offered by institutes of higher learning and other training providers.

In tandem, SSFA can also promote the skills-certification schemes run by the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore, and organise capacity-building workshops in areas not readily offered by the training providers.

Chia, noting that MAS, IBF and Workforce Singapore are studying the impact of sustainability on Singapore’s financial sector workforce, said: “Preliminary findings suggest that most of the jobs must be augmented by upskilling to support changes in regulations, products and processes. In addition, new and highly specialised roles, such as sustainability-risk analysts, will be created.”

The full findings and key initiatives to beef up the sector will be released in April.

“Sustainable finance is a key thrust of Singapore’s development as a leading international financial centre,” said Chia, for whom Wednesday’s event was his first public industry engagement since taking over the helm of Singapore’s central bank from his predecessor Ravi Menon, who has retired.

The setting up of the SSFA was mooted by MAS last June; The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) was named the main coordinator.

The new association comes on the heels of efforts by the Green Finance Industry Taskforce, which was formed in 2019 to kickstart the development of green finance in Singapore. Its work culminated in the sustainable and transition finance taxonomy launched at the United Nations climate change conference last December.

The taskforce had at first been set up as a temporary body, but the industry recognised the need for a permanent entity to navigate the evolving sustainable-finance space.

The first-term co-chairs of the SSFA, set up as that permanent entity, are Deborah Ho, country head of Singapore and regional head of South-east Asia at asset manager BlackRock, and Wong Kee Joo, chief executive officer of HSBC Singapore.

Gillian Tan, chief sustainability officer and assistant MD for development and international at MAS, and ABS director Ong-Ang Ai Boon will be standing members of the association’s executive committee.

Other members include the chief sustainability officers of the three Singapore banks – DBS, OCBC and UOB.