The particular MAS first published a sustainability statement last year, laying out the need for a climate-resilient reserves portfolio.
“As the steward of Singapore’s established foreign reserves, MAS will ensure that the particular reserves investment portfolio is well-positioned for the transition to a low-carbon future, ” said Mr Menon.
“MAS may continue to monitor environment signposts to assess the pace and nature of the low-carbon transition, and will adjust our portfolio actions appropriately. ”
SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURES
MAS’ sustainability push also includes the greening of the country’s financial sector.
For just one, MAS and the Singapore Exchange are upgrading efforts to reinforce the comparability plus reliability of sustainability disclosures for detailed companies, major finance institutions and retail ESG funds.
First, funds that are sold to retail traders in Singapore under the ESG label will soon have to offer relevant information to better substantiate their ESG label. These include details on the fund’s expense strategy, criteria and metrics used to select investments, as well as dangers and limitations linked to the fund’s strategy.
“MAS will require the disclosures to be made on an on-going basis. Investors will receive annual up-dates on how well the fund has achieved its ESG focus, ” said Mister Menon.
“The new guidelines, to take effect from January 2023, will help to decrease greenwashing risks plus enable retail investors to better understand the ESG funds they spend money on. ”
Additionally , listed companies will be required to disclose their own climate-related risks based on recommendations by the Job Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) from 2023 onwards.
Those in the financial services, power, agriculture, food and woodland products industries is going to be scoped in initial. By 2025, greater than 60 per cent of SGX-listed entities by number and 79 per cent by overall market capitalisation is going to be required to make mandatory disclosures.
Mandatory climate-related disclosures regarding major financial institutions will kick in later, but reference the Global Sustainability Standards Plank (ISSB) standard.
“We will consult within the disclosure requirements designed for financial institutions as soon as the ISSB standard is finalised, ” said Mister Menon.
MAS is also planning to indulge financial institutions on their transition plans towards net-zero or other related emissions targets.
In addition , it will release an ESG disclosure platform later this year, which aims to allow listed companies within Singapore to upload their sustainability data in “a structured and efficient manner” while enabling multiple external stakeholders to gain access to these data.
It will also help “streamline and reduce corporates’ ESG reporting burden, and ensure comparability for users of these data sets such as financial institutions and service providers”.
In addition , this intends to incorporate a variety of long-term climate scenarios into its industry-wide stress test workout this year.
Doing so will help raise understanding of the potential economic plus financial implications associated with climate risks, and facilitate learning for both the central bank and financial institutions, MAS mentioned.
As part of having a vibrant green finance ecosystem, MAS has introduced various grants to support the issuance associated with green bonds or nudge businesses to take up green and sustainability-linked loans.
It also worked on growing the local talent pool by anchoring think-tanks and centres of excellence in Singapore, as well as launching skills training roadmaps in sustainable finance.
Meanwhile, MAS can also be eyeing its own efficiency carbon footprint plus aims to reduce exhausts “sizeably and attain net-zero at the first possible timeframe”.
For this, it mentioned it has come up with a construction to reduce emissions through business air travel plus embarked on measures to further reduce its upstream and downstream emissions from currency operations.