Maybank has designed its own Sustainable Product Framework (SPF) to enable greater development of green, social and sustainable products.
The framework will be implemented group-wide across Islamic and conventional products effective 1 September 2022.
In keeping with best practices adopted by global peers, this framework covers products offered under corporate lending, debt and equity capital markets, trade financing, retail financing, insurance, asset and wealth management, derivatives and deposits.
The main aim of the framework is to help Maybank’s business teams have clarity in developing green, social and sustainable products by looking at the intended use of the proceeds from the product or solution offered, and whether it meets the group’s sustainable standards throughout its life-cycle.
The SPF outlines methodologies and procedures to classify and report financial products and services offered by Maybank as sustainable.
It also provides classification logic, eligibility criteria, verification processes and exclusion criteria, among others, for products to be recognised as sustainable finance.
The framework also specifies qualifying transition elements for various hard-to-abate sectors in line with International Capital Markets Association’s Climate Transition Finance Handbook and the decarbonisation pathway set by Transition Pathway Initiative.
Maybank said that it will further evaluate its ability to do more sustainable financing in the immediate future given its momentum in mobilising sustainable finance solutions over the last one and a half years coupled with the rollout of the SPF.
The implementation of this framework comes on the heels of Maybank almost reaching its half-way mark of its RM50 billion sustainable financing target by 2025.
Chairman of Maybank, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said,
“Many of our customers are at different stages of the sustainability journey.
We want to support them through this long-term journey and for that, we not only need to be clear ourselves on what is defined as sustainable finance, but also know how to work with our customers to offer them dedicated sustainable, sustainably-linked or transitionary solutions based on their needs.”
Group President and CEO of Maybank, Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli said,
“As a leading financial institution in ASEAN and in line with our aspiration to be a regional ESG leader, we want to be able to drive sustainable financing through our regional operations in a more meaningful and impactful manner. This has led us to draw clear definitions of green, social and transition activities to guide our risk, business and sales teams on eligible sustainable financing and solutions.
We hope that by giving our teams the right tools and clarity on perimeters of sustainable financing, this can expedite the growth of timely ESG financing solutions over the near term as well as enhance our efficiency in turnaround time for processing of these solutions.”
