Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July, 2020 at 9:04 am by Andre Camilleri
The increasing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions, as well as access to finance for the development of clean technologies, were some of the key themes examined during HSBC’s recently concluded Sustainable Finance Month.
As part of this global HSBC Group initiative, HSBC Malta organised a number of virtual events for the Maltese business community. Among these, a webinar entitled “Sustainable Investing – Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Factors” gave a detailed overview of the seven key strategies for Responsible Investment. These include how investors can analyse the policies and impact of businesses and investment funds, across a range of social and environmental factors. The event, led by Konrad Borg Myatt, CEO at HSBC Global Asset Management (Malta) Ltd, also highlighted the ways in which HSBC is leading the way in integrating ESG factors into its own approach to investing.
The discussion on ESG factors was followed by a second presentation on green loans and how they can be used to finance environmentally friendly and energy-saving products and services, both for personal and commercial use. This discussion was hosted by John Ghigo, Head of Consumer Lending at HSBC Malta.
Simon Vaughan Johnson, CEO at HSBC Malta, said: “Environmental and social factors are very important issues for many investors and they are often key drivers for investment decisions. Responsible investing is certainly not a new concept at HSBC and we recognise that there is an excellent opportunity for us all to ‘Build Back Better’ and to further encourage the transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy.”
Fiona Captur, JAYE Malta Foundation CEO, who attended the webinar said: “As JAYE’s work is well aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals this webinar brought ESG into focus in terms of valuable content directly related to the structure of our programmes. Additionally, it gave me a better understanding of HSBC’s point of view for potential investment opportunities for our StartUp Teams.”
