The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched its Finance for Net Zero (FiNZ) Action Plan to accelerate their plans toward net zero.
According to MAS, the FiNZ Action Plan sets out its strategies to mobilise financing to catalyse Asia’s net zero transition and decarbonisation activities in Singapore and the region.
It expands the scope of MAS’ Green Finance Action Plan that was launched in 2019 to include transition finance. Transition finance refers to investment, lending, insurance, and related services to progressively decarbonise areas such as power generation, buildings, and transportation.
The FiNZ Action Plan aims to achieve four strategic outcomes. These include promoting consistent, comparable and reliable climate data and disclosures, achieving a climate resilient financial sector, credible transition plans and green and transition solutions and markets.
MAS will also expand the scope of its sustainable bond and loan grant schemes to include transition bonds and loans, with safeguards in place to mitigate the risk of “transition-washing” and ensure alignment with internationally recognised taxonomy and transition finance principles.
To promote transparency in the sustainable debt market, MAS said it will incentivise the early adoption of entity-level sustainability disclosures by issuers or borrowers. MAS has set aside S$15 million over the next five years till end 2028 for the enhanced grant schemes. More details on these changes will be released shortly.
The Monetary Authority will also extend the Insurance-Linked Securities Grant Scheme till end 2025 to support the continued growth of catastrophe bonds and additional climate risk financing instruments such as sidecars and collateralised reinsurance arrangements.
This, MAS claims, will enable additional financing for protection against disaster risks to be raised from the capital markets. The S$15 million grant will defray the cost of issuing catastrophe bonds and the expanded suite of insurance-linked securities that focus on Asia risks.
ERM, a pure-play sustainability consultancy, has recently partnered with climate accounting software firm Persefoni to accelerate the path to net zero.
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