As a visionary part for broader national activity and for making it better sustainable, Singapore is overviewing to power as one of the global advanced FinTech markets for leading their pathway in becoming a leader within the green FinTech.
Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, Grace Fu, during a speech within the realms of Singapore FinTech Awards Night during February 10th 2021, emphasized as Singapore’s humungous FinTech ecosystem, which presently depicts in excess of 40% of all FinTech firms within Southeast Asian territory.
Simultaneously, the nation is ASEAN’s major green finance market, reckoning for close to 50% of collective green bond and loan issuing. These features make Singapore dignified to become a frontrunner in greener FinTech.
Fu’s statements came presently before the announcement of the 2021 Budget, during which Deputy Prime Minister as well as the Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat charted the Singapore Green Plan. The national sustainability effort has set out a figure of determined goals around cleaner power, green living, waste and consumption, green finance, as well as more.
Fu also further stated that: “Our vision is for Singapore to be a leading centre for green finance in Asia as well as globally. Technology can play an instrumental role in greening finance, and supporting the development of trusted, efficient green finance markets. For instance, good, strong data, and the use of FinTech, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to process, collect and analyze data, can inform decision making, and risk management practices.”
Within the realm at the Singapore FinTech Festival the preceding year, MAS proclaimed Project Greenprint, a technology podium expected at promoting a greener financial ecosystem via green FinTech. The central bank also reserved S$50 million to provision green FinTech projects in Singapore.
These creativities came on top of the Green Finance Action Plan, broadcasted in November 2019, which encompasses four key impetus: consolidation of the financial sector’s suppleness to ecological hazards, emerging markets and solutions for a sustainable economy, connecting technology, and structuring out a robust base of knowledge and competences in sustainable finance.
Singapore’s green finance motivations are being powered out by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which has already divulged numerous initiatives concentrating on harnessing technology to empower trusted and effectual sustainable finance flows.
Under the Green Finance Action Plan, MAS is inspiring FinTech as well as the financial institutions to advance green FinTech explanations.
The alliance efforts on discovering the technological and practical probability of digital assets interoperability, liquidity, cross-border connectivity, and smart contract templates, including the provision of sustainability-themed digital bonds.
FinTech incubator and accelerator F10 declared earlier this month a business with New Energy Nexus to form the initial global green and climate FinTech program. The climate FinTech program will attend F10’s existing core curriculum, and the Zurich, Singapore, Madrid and Barcelona-based banking and insurance incubator will also encompass its existing open call for applicants.
In the private sector, several FinTech start-ups are commencing to embrace environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) measures within their commercial and procedures.
Hashstacs, a blockchain progress firm and technological solutions provider for the financial world, lately teamed up with Deutsche Bank for a proof-of-concept project connected to digital assets.
Moody’s ESG Solutions Group, the ESG and climate visions arm of the credit rating agency, is structuring an inclusive suite of ESG properties out of Singapore to forefront its sustainable finance agenda in Asia Pacific. Crucial initiatives in Singapore include an ESG-focused innovation Lab and Technology Accelerator to progress ESG analytical solutions and valuation tools in partnership with native FinTech firms.
Other Asian based green FinTech hubs
While Singapore is already in pursuit to become a principal green FinTech hub in Southeast Asia, other positions across Asia are viewing the progress of green FinTech ecosystems.
In China, Ant Group lately unveiled its purpose to become carbon neutral economy within 2030 and vowed to aid bring down discharges through technological innovations. The firm also stated that it will set up a carbon neutrality fund to sustenance of the research and progression of renewable energy and other green technologies, and operate with industry partners to encourage green finance.
Today, China is home of a mushrooming green FinTech landscape where start-ups like Dipole Tech, Uni Inclusive, NengLian and Mixis Link are optimally utilizing technologies counting blockchain, AI and big data, to help finance climate-friendly companies and provide banks with ESG data and technology platforms.
This landscape is evolving on top of green finance initiatives tossed by the Chinese government and regulators themselves. Among the most noteworthy ones is the Green Finance Information Management System launched by the People’s Bank of China in August 2019.
In 2016, Ant Group launched Ant Forest, a green initiative on the Alipay mobile app which combines mobile transactions and gamification to encourage a low-carbon lifestyle. As of March 2020, more than 550 million people had joined Ant Forest. The project has become China’s largest private sector tree-planting initiative.
The Green Finance Information Management System is a green loaning data management podium that operates big data, AI, cloud computing, as well as other technologies to create data traceable, equivalent, and measurable for participants on the platform. It’s purposes as a repository for green lending statistics and analytics, green lending protocols, and reviews of green lending policy implementation across the nation.
