Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex) and a consortium of four major commercial banks in Singapore led by UOB have announced an initiative to develop digital solutions for the application of green trade financing standards across industries.
According to a press release by UOB and SGTradex on Nov 9, the initiative aims to enable effective, data-driven decision-making around environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors so that banks can better support their clients’ green trade financing needs.
The participating banks include DBS, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered.
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Piloting with key industries such as agriculture as well as real estate and construction, the initiative is conducted in partnership with the MAS Project Greenprint and will start in end-November. It seeks to facilitate a more seamless and trusted ESG data exchange between financial institutions and the projects they are financing in the real economic sectors.
When completed, the initiative will create a transparent green trade financing data exchange model facilitated by SGTraDex infrastructure for banks to validate required green certification data residing within a centralised repository.
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This allows banks to extend green trade financing to qualified supply chain players in the areas of production, trading or distribution through a more simplified process and in a timelier manner. This initiative will build capabilities for the banking industry to make trade-based green financing more readily available and accessible in the market.
As at 11.02am, shares in UOB, DBS and OCBC are trading at $28, $32.45 and $11.98 respectively.
