Monthly archive

Far-reaching interventions are needed to overcome shortcomings in Singapore’s approach to climate adaptation projects. This was the main conclusion of a new report, Are Markets Interested in Adapting to Climate? Insights From Singapore, published by the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC), an initiative of SMU and Imperial College Business School (ICBS), backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The report has collated the views of leading practitioners in Singapore and offers several policy recommendations. According to the paper, co-authored by Stella Whittaker, a Visiting Researcher at ICBS and Dr. Tran Bao Phuong Nguyen, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at SMU, although a sense of urgency to tackle adaptation has been widely communicated from the top down, Singapore has not yet clearly articulated a role for the private sector and the market in financing adaptation.

Commenting on the challenges in defining what economic activities need transition, SMU Associate Professor of Finance Liang Hao, who is also Co-Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre, noted that this has resulted in the lack of widely accepted taxonomies on transition financing, unlike green and other types of sustainable financing. “Central to the challenge surrounding transition definitions is how to accurately assess transition activities and report the impact of those activities…Due to such lack of principles and guidelines, essentially most loans to carbon-intensive companies can be tweaked as transition financing, said Assoc Prof Liang, who was speaking about the challenges of this particular form of financing and not about the UOB-Adaro’s deal specifically.

The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIA) welcomed the SMU Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) onboard as official Knowledge Partner for three years on Mar 15. SKBI is also the exclusive sponsor of MAIA’s newest award category for green financial literacy education, which will now be named “The Sim Kee Boon Institute for Sustainable Finance Literacy Prize”. The winner of the award will receive a prize of S$1,000. SMU Professor of Finance (Practice) and Director of SKBI Dave Fernandez said, “As an academic institute whose key areas of focus are financial inclusion and literacy, sustainable finance and financial technology, we are pleased to be a part of the Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards. We are strong believers in the need to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best-practices. The MAIAs offer a new and dynamic platform to achieve this worldwide.”

The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIA) welcomed the SMU Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) onboard as official Knowledge Partner for three years on 15 March. SKBI is also the exclusive sponsor of MAIA’s newest award category for green financial literacy education, which will now be named “The Sim Kee Boon Institute for Sustainable Finance Literacy Prize”. The winner of the award will receive a prize of S$1,000. SMU Professor of Finance (Practice) and Director of SKBI Dave Fernandez said, “As an academic institute whose key areas of focus are financial inclusion and literacy, sustainable finance and financial technology, we are pleased to be a part of the Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards. We are strong believers in the need to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best-practices. The MAIAs offer a new and dynamic platform to achieve this worldwide.”

According to the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx) report, jointly compiled by the SMU Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics with DBS Group, the one-year-ahead inflation is expected to hit 4.6% in March compared to 3.8% in December. This is higher than the average one-year-ahead headline inflation expectations of 3.3% since the survey’s inception between 2012-2022. The 47th edition of the survey is led by principal investigator SMU Assistant Professor of Finance (Education) Aurobindo Ghosh.

According to the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations report [jointly compiled by the SMU Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics with DBS Group], more Singaporeans (50%) now expect inflation to decline in the next 12 months. In the December 2022 edition of the survey, only 41% believed that price pressures will ease within a year. According to the survey, consumers are now more positive about their inflation expectations because central banks in major economies are raising interest rates (41%), and there has been a slowdown in global growth (35%). The survey also found that consumers are divided on whether the current economic conditions will negatively impact one-year-ahead and five-year-ahead overall inflation.\

The Singapore Green Finance Centre is a partnership that draws on the strengths of Imperial College Business School and SMU in climate finance and risk, sustainable investing and more. The centre aims to equip institutions and professionals with the information and skills necessary to develop activities in green finance in the ASEAN region. The Singapore Green Finance Centre will also develop a strong pipeline of experts in green finance, helping to enable the transition of capital markets in Asia towards a lower carbon future.

The Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) has collaborated with the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC) to offer a series of training modules on sustainable finance. The SGFC, managed by SMU and Imperial College London, seeks to develop green capital markets in Singapore through high-impact research and educational programmes. The initiative is backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and other global financial institutions. SMU Professor of Finance (Practice) and Co-director at SGFC Dave Fernandez said, “Sustainable finance can be a complex subject to master given its cross-curricular nature and novelty. Training working professionals with limited time is an added challenge. Therefore, we designed these modules with practicality and conciseness as our key focuses. The goal is to provide a solid and holistic foundation for finance practitioners, enough for them to then self-develop in their day-to-day practice.”

The inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance will take place at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, 26 and 28 June 2023. The event will bring together academic experts, practitioners, and board directors from six continents to discuss theoretical and practical challenges to global climate action. The conference is a global collaboration between the Centre for Climate Engagement and Climate Governance Initiative, based at the University of Cambridge, and the SMU Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) – with support from the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC). Professor Dave Fernandez, Director of SKBI and Co-Director of SGFC said, “Sustainability is a topic which is gaining traction because of the climate crisis. This topic is not going to go away, and we must as a society keep up with the changing times. This is why we have made Sustainable Finance one of the core areas of focus at our institute.” A side event discussing the key actions from the conference will follow the conference, hosted by Climate Governance Singapore, for which SMU is a knowledge partner.

In 2019, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said climate change was a matter of “life and death” for the city-state. “Although a sense of urgency to tackle adaptation has been widely communicated from the top down in the City State, it has not yet clearly articulated a role for the private sector and the market in adaptation,” said researchers of a report from the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC) in February. An initiative of London’s Imperial College and SMU, SGFC was launched in 2020 to advance climate financing solutions.