The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the ESG Impact Hub (the Hub) to encourage the co-location and collaboration between Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) FinTech start-ups and solution providers, financial institutions and real economy stakeholders.
Purpose of the Hub
The establishment of the Hub seeks to capitalise on the strong industry interest in Project Greenprint and expedite the growth of Singapore’s ESG ecosystem on three fronts:
Dr Darian McBain, the MAS’ chief sustainability officer, sees the establishment of the ESG Impact Hub as a critical milestone in Project Greenprint’s journey to build a vibrant and robust ESG ecosystem in Singapore, underpinned by technology and data.
“This physical Hub will augment MAS’ plans to launch a digital Greenprint Marketplace next year to catalyse the growth of the region’s online ESG community; and will serve as the launchpad for public-private partnerships that support Asia’s just and sustainable transition to a low carbon economy.”
Growing ESG FinTechs: The Hub will facilitate the discovery, scaling and deployment of technology solutions to address ESG needs of corporates and financial institutions, notably in terms of accurate measurement, reporting and verification of climate and sustainability data.
Anchoring ESG Enablers: MAS will engage knowledge partners, financial institutions and investors to organise key ESG initiatives out of the Hub, such as ESG FinTech accelerator programmes, training and capacity-building workshops, and thought leadership events.
Supporting ESG Stakeholders: MAS will engage the Hub community to deploy its programmes and solutions to drive the material, quantifiable impacts that support sectoral transition efforts, with particular emphasis on the eight focus sectors identified by the Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT).
Early sign-ups
At the time of launch, 15 ESG FinTechs and organisations are already set up at the Hub5. MAS will continue to engage key stakeholders in building the Hub’s onsite community and fostering partnerships to enhance financial sector access to high-quality climate and sustainability data, to support more efficient deployment of capital towards green and sustainable projects.
What’s next?
The Hub will also anchor industry-driven sustainability initiatives such the Point Carbon Zero Programme and KPMG's ESG Business Foundry.
Sherie Ng, country director for Singapore and Malaysia at Google Cloud, said, “Having established a carbon-neutral cloud platform that green fintechs are now using to build their innovative solutions, the next phase of the Point Carbon Zero Programme will involve mobilising the wider industry ecosystem to advance the adoption of these solutions.
It is also understood that a Climate Finance Accelerator will be created to facilitate the channelling of capital towards green fintech companies and create opportunities for them to work closely with the rest of the industry to address challenges in areas like sustainability reporting, green credit scoring systems, and supply chain traceability.
Similar accelerators have been established in markets like the United Kingdom, Pakistan and South Africa.
