- MOU signifies milestone in the development of ESG platform
to support SGX-listed companies in their reporting needs
- Collaboration sets OneConnect in pole position in APAC for
using technologies in enhancing reporting and applying ESG
information
SINGAPORE, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OneConnect
Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (OneConnect) the leading
technology-as-a-service platform provider and an associate of
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of
China, Ltd. ("Ping An"), today said it had entered a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore Exchange (SGX) to
collaborate and build an environmental, social and governance (ESG)
platform to facilitate and simplify the ESG disclosure processes of
companies listed on SGX.
This collaboration is part of efforts to develop and promote a
sustainable ecosystem by raising the quality of ESG disclosures and
promoting the application and integration of ESG factors across
capital market stakeholders in the long term. The collaboration
places OneConnect as the ESG trailblazer of the Asia Pacific region, deploying a suite of tech
solutions that establishes a framework and streamlines ESG
reporting through specified standard indicators and templates.
The platform will help companies listed
on SGX to efficiently manage and make their sustainability
disclosures for possible benchmarking more transparent. This may
help to improve the standard of overall ESG performance in the long
run. The platform will also help overcome common challenges faced
by companies and investors when dealing with ESG information. These
challenges include lack of comparability, changing investors'
demand, as well as the evolving business landscape and
regulations.
Features of the platform will include workflow management
systems, report and visualisation modules and an ESG disclosure
framework mapping to meet listed companies' ESG reporting and data
processing needs. The partnership will bring together relevant
resources such as ESG datasets and domain expertise while adding
new functionalities progressively to better serve companies,
investors, research analysts and relevant stakeholders.
As an associate and the preferred tech partner of Ping An, OneConnect has teamed up with
Ping An to deliver ESG solutions for
companies outside of China. Ping
An itself is the first company in China to participate in the United Nation's
Principles for Sustainable Insurance framework, and the first
insurer in China to be included in
the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. Ping
An has leveraged its "finance + technology" expertise to
develop the Ping An AI-ESG Platform to track, measure and monitor
its internal ESG performance. Using artificial intelligence,
natural language processing technologies and other ESG tools
including greenwashing detection and climate value-at-risk
asset-repricing models, the Ping An AI-ESG Platform captures
and computes the five-year ESG scores of all Chinese A-share
companies for its benchmarking and investment-decision making.
Ms Jessica Tan, Co-CEO of Ping An
Group, said, "As a champion of ESG, Ping
An believes in 'tech for social good' where technologies can
aptly enable every company to become a responsible corporate
citizen. With the development of Ping
An's own artificial intelligence-driven ESG framework in
China – we see the synergy in
sharing and integrating our expertise in ESG into a platform that
can be adopted by other companies, thereby bolstering the ESG
culture across Asia Pacific."
Ms Tan Bin Ru, CEO (SEA),
OneConnect Financial Technology, shared, "With ESG taking
centre-stage in the global scene, companies are increasingly
subject to a set of non-financial reporting of ESG factors to meet
investors' demands and regulatory requirements. This is an
opportune time and an esteemed privilege for OneConnect to join
hands to develop the ESG platform with SGX. This is a remarkable
moment for us to be able to tap on our expertise and work alongside
SGX in creating and implementing a robust platform for SGX-listed
companies to better their journey on ESG reporting and strengthen
their sustainability risk management."
Mr Michael Syn, Senior Managing
Director and Head of Equities, SGX, said, "Investors globally are
placing increasing importance on sustainability considerations,
leading to significant growth in capital allocated to ESG
strategies. As a result, both investors and issuers desire ESG data
to be more transparent, standardised and accessible. The data and
workflow platform will help SGX-listed companies report with more
effective alignment to major disclosure standards. The focus is on
a core set of indicators that are quantitative in nature and
normalised for comparability. This complements issuers'
materiality-based reporting that are highly specific to each listed
company's business context. For investors, the benefit is more
seamless integration of this core set of indicators into their
investment strategies and capital allocation across portfolios,
lowering the information friction they currently face."
SGX, as a front-line market regulator, has played an integral
part in driving disclosures through rulemaking and capacity
building. Mandatory sustainability reporting was implemented in
Singapore since 2016. This has
been an area of constant progress as international standards
continue to be refined. SGX has also been making a bigger push in
sustainability with a S$20-million
multi-pronged plan to expand its ESG-focused products, services and
platforms, as well as to build capacity for the financial
ecosystem, strengthen internal capabilities and increase
CSR commitments.
About OneConnect Financial
Technology
OneConnect (NYSE: OCFT) is a leading technology-as-a-service
platform for financial institutions. The Company's platform
provides cloud-native technology solutions that integrate extensive
financial services industry expertise with market-leading
technology. The Company's solutions provide technology applications
and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions.
Together they enable the Company's customers' digital
transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks,
improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs.
Our technology-as-a-service platform strategically covers
multiple verticals in the financial services industry, including
banking, insurance and asset management, across the full scope of
their businesses – from sales and marketing and risk management to
customer services, as well as technology infrastructure such as
data management, program development, and cloud services.
About Ping An Group
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of
China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered
retail financial services group. With over 218 million retail
customers and 598 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services
companies in the world. Ping An
focuses on two over-arching domains of activity, "pan financial
assets" and "pan health care", covering the provision of financial
and health care services through our integrated financial services
platform and our ecosystems; in financial services, health care,
auto services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology"
and "finance + ecosystem" transformation strategies aim to provide
customers and internet users with innovative and simple products
and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company,
Ping An is committed to upholding
the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate
governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in
Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2020, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000
list and ranked 21st in the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 38th in the 2020 WPP Kantar
Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands
list.
For more information, please
visit www.group.pingan.com, and follow us on LinkedIn - PING AN
About Singapore Exchange
Singapore Exchange is Asia's
leading and trusted market infrastructure, operating equity, fixed
income and derivatives markets to the highest regulatory standards.
It also operates Asia's only
multi-partner, multi-asset exchange-led sustainability platform
(sgx.com/first).
As Asia's most international,
multi-asset exchange, SGX provides listing, trading, clearing,
settlement, depository and data services, with about 40% of listed
companies and over 80% of listed bonds originating outside of
Singapore. SGX is the world's most
liquid international market for the benchmark equity indices of
China, India, Japan
and ASEAN and offers commodities and currency derivatives products.
Headquartered in AAA-rated Singapore, SGX is globally recognised for its
risk management and clearing capabilities. For more information,
please visit www.sgx.com.
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SOURCE OneConnect