Evolving ESG and Green Finance Landscape Require Greater Awareness by Banks

President Message

Bolster Talent Mobility to Vitalise the Greater Bay Area

As the goal to develop the Greater Bay Area (GBA) into a new economic powerhouse continues to build momentum, in his President's Message, Peter WONG GBS, JP, Hon. Fellow (HKIB), President, Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB) focuses on the challenges and opportunities associated with offering Hong Kong's younger generation a dynamic choice of career paths as well as opening up new opportunities for young entrepreneurs. To help boost better understanding about the GBA, the President suggests considering setting up a joint consultative body to provide help for Hong Kong and Macao businesses, and particularly young businesses, to develop throughout the GBA region.

Cover Story

Evolving ESG and Green Finance Landscape Requires Greater Awareness by Banks 

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues have come sharply into focus among banks, which has prompted banks and other financial institutions to respond to what is both a client need and a real business opportunity.  As our Cover Story notes, at the same time, the regulators and other bodies are playing a key role in raising awareness and facilitating market appetite, especially as governments are focusing on the direction the long-term response to COVID-19 should take.

China World

Fintech Prospects Expand in the Greater Bay Area

As an "economic superzone", the Greater Bay Area (GBA) features all the necessary innovation and opportunity factors to expand the scale and elevate the capabilities of Hong Kong's Fintech sector. The GBA Fintech sector in particular has seen remarkable growth and new opportunities emerge on the back of the accelerated digital transformation the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered. With the explosive growth of the Fintech sector, companies are looking for a myriad of skills and roles to feed the critical talent pipeline. This ranges from data scientists, developers and engineers, to those with a passion for marketing, business development and more.

Fintech 

Banking Culture Versus Fintech Culture

The interplay of culture between banks and Fintech companies is frequently overlooked, but understanding the differences is important as banks and Fintechs compete for customers. The Fintech article in this edition explores the themes by considering how banks and Fintechs are related but different and can learn from each other to build on their respective strengths so co-existence will be easier.

Knowledge Plus

To Prevent Market Damage, Industry Must Work to Expand FX Risk Mitigation

As a pillar of a sound financial system, the foreign exchange (FX) market is global, involves large sums of money and operates 24 hours per day.  Disruption of any type – particularly a materialisation of FX settlement risk – could cause disruption in markets around the world. The Knowledge Plus article focuses on the different ways that FX settlement risk have become an increasing concern for banks in the APAC region, and the appropriate steps they can consider implementing to strengthen risk mitigation measures.

GRC Corner 

Raising Cybersecurity Awareness in an Evolving Threat Landscape

From the dark web to cyber-patch loopholes and vulnerabilities exposed through systems and network setups, in today’s increasingly digitalised world, as the threats, frequency, volume and complexity of cyber-attacks continue to escalate, securing bank customers’ accounts and sensitive data is more important than ever. Because banks make millions of transactions each day, and most of them done on digital platforms the GRC Corner article looks at practical ways to mitigate cybersecurity threats while still being able to provide customers with convenient, technologically advanced options.