The sector is showing no signs of stopping. “We expect growing investor demand and government support to drive issuance and [this] could lead to a doubling of total Asian sustainable bonds outstanding within the next three years,” says Kuek in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
Sustainability endeavours require capital, and Singapore’s financial sector is well-positioned to drive this change. This is the view of Desmond Kuek, divisional vice-chairman at UBS Global Wealth Management and head of the sustainable finance committee in the UBS Global Office of Sustainability and Impact.
Asia’s sustainable bond market, which includes green, social and sustainability issuances, has grown significantly over the past five years. Year-to-date, the issuance of US$31 billion ($41.9 billion) is already higher than the amounts raised for the full years in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
