OneConnect and SGX Partner to Launch an ESG Reporting Platform
Technology-as-a-service platform and PingAn Group associate OneConnect Financial Technology and Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced today an agreement to collaborate and build an ESG platform aimed at facilitating and simplifying the ESG disclosure processes of companies listed on SGX.
Ms Tan Bin Ru, CEO (SEA), OneConnect Financial Technology, said:
“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.”
According to the companies, the new platform will help companies to efficiently manage sustainability reporting, and help improve transparency for possible benchmarking. Features of the platform are expected to include workflow management systems, report and visualisation modules, and an ESG disclosure framework mapping to meet listed companies’ ESG reporting and data processing needs. OneConnect and SGX stated that the platform will help overcome common challenges faced by companies and investors when dealing with ESG information, including a lack of comparability, changing investors’ demand, and an evolving regulatory landscape.
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.”
Ms Jessica Tan, Co-CEO of Ping An Group, added:
“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.”