Network of Central Banks and Supervisors Meet in Singapore to Discuss Greening the Financial System

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has published a statement to inform of several meetings of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) that were held in Singapore on April 25, 2023 and April 26, 2023. The overall objective of the meetings was to discuss the status quo of the transition towards sustainable financial markets and possible improvements to speed up and foster the transition.
The first meeting which took place on April 25, 2023 was attended by all key member institutions. The debates primarily focused on „climate scenarios and vulnerability assessments of the financial sector, the implications of climate change for monetary policy, the role of supervisors with respect to transition planning by financial institutions, central banks’ net zero strategies, and training and capacity building.“
On same day, the NGFS also held its Plenary Outreach event for Asian Pacific members where participants discussed the importance of Asian countries in the global transition towards net zero carbon emissions, the importance of conducting climate change-related scenario analysis, and the significant role of financial institutions when it comes to fostering the transition to net zero carbon emissions among their clients.
On April 26, 2023, the NGFS held a full-day workshop with a wide range of participants, ranging from representatives of various financial institutions, to representatives from academia and a similar wide range of topics covered at the event. Specifically, the participants discussed
– methods to further foster the transition such as the increase in cross-border cooperation and cross border fund flows to initiate additional transition projects (blended finance) and the current need for more credible, reliable ESG data;
– the impact of climate change upon the financial market and upon financial products and services and current issues faced in the assessment of such impact (uncertainty, model limitations, data deficiencies);
– the complexity of measuring nature-related risks due to climate change and the impact of nature-related risks on financial institutions; and
– the significance of transition planning to capture all relevant factors and the special role that is attributed to banks and building societies in fostering the transition to net zero carbon emission.