Singapore’s OCBC seeks more green loans in SE Asia

Bloomberg

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) aims to expand its lending to environmentally-friendly projects after this year building the biggest exposure to green loans among its Southeast Asian peers.
The bank has built a team of five to focus on sustainable financing after foraying into green loans last year and is looking to add bankers, said Mike Ng, the Singapore bank’s head of structured and sustainable finance. So far in 2019, OCBC has participated in more than $500 million of green lending, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
More banks in Asia are piling into environmentally-focussed loans after a regional association last year agreed on principles that standardise disclosure rules.
While that should boost lending in the area, Asia has a lot of ground to make up. It accounts for just 21%, or $217 billion, of the total $1.02 trillion of sustainable debt globally, according to BNEF data.
“There’s much greater awareness now and a lot of pressure points on companies such as investors, non-government organisations, consumers and regulators,” Ng said in an interview.
OCBC wants to build a sustainable finance portfolio of S$10 billion ($7.3 billion) by 2022, and is almost halfway toward that goal, Ng said. The target will include lending classified as green loans as well as focused on environmental, social and governance initiatives, renewable energy, water and green transportation, he said.
Ng said OCBC started extending green loans after the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association laid out principles aimed at increasing transparency on the use of proceeds and on the environmental impact of projects.