Deutsche Bank has revealed it is establishing an environmental, social and governance (ESG) Centre of Excellence (COE) in Singapore.
According to Deutsche, the centre will work across all business divisions and focus on the execution of ESG transactions, new product development and advisory services. The latter will include sharing best global practices with Asian regulators and regional bodies.
The bank also claims it will look to be at the ‘nexus’ of ESG and FinTech and focus on developing new products addressing key gaps in the market.
Deutsche highlighted impact monitoring, payments to un-banked communities and data management as key gaps in the market to be tackled.
Deutsche Bank head of Asia Pacific ESB Kamran Khan said, “By establishing this ESG Centre of Excellence in Singapore, we aim to set standards for evidence-based, data-driven transactions which can substantiate ESG impact and support sustainable growth.”
Monetary Authority of Singapore development and international assistant managing director Gillian Tan added, “The Centre of Excellence will leverage innovation to accelerate Asia’s transition to a sustainable future. The COE’s goal to facilitate industry knowledge transfer will help to deepen the pool of specialized talent and capabilities in Singapore.”
Deutsche was recently told by German financial regulator BaFin that it needed to enact further safeguards to prevent money laundering. The bank was fined around $700m in 2017 for allowing money laundering following a plan of artificial trades between London, Moscow and New York which authorities claimed were used to launder $10bn out of Russia.
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