China and Singapore team up to scale green and transition financing

Major Asian economies China and Singapore have set up a task force to deepen bilateral cooperation in green and transition finance. The move is aimed at facilitating greater public-private sector collaboration for a low-carbon future in the region.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced it was collaborating with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) to establish the China-Singapore Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF). With the GFTF, the duo aims to co-develop a set of financial standards, products, technologies and definitions to lower carbon footprints.

According to the MAS’ assistant managing director and chief sustainability officer, Gillian Tan, public-private participants from China and Singapore will collaborate “on concrete initiatives that will catalyze capital flows to support a credible and inclusive transition to a low carbon future for our countries and the region.”

For starters, the GFTF will allow the MAS and PBoC to find common ground for taxonomies and definitions with respect to each other’s existing transition activities. The task force will also enable the countries to strengthen sustainability bond market connectivity, which includes two-way access to green and transition bond products.

The GFTF’s technology initiative will involve MetaVerse Green Exchange, a licensed crypto exchange from Singapore, and Beijing Green Exchange, a Beijing municipal government-approved company, to help facilitate sustainable finance adoption. The two companies are also tasked with piloting digital green bonds with carbon credits.

Chinese banks are reportedly opening bank accounts for regulated crypto companies, with several acting as a payment layer for the crypto platforms.

While Chinese state-owned Bank of Communications is in talks to open accounts for regulated companies, ZA Bank, Hong Kong’s largest virtual bank, will act as the settlement bank for the crypto companies, according to Wall Street Journal report.