This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 23, 2019 - September 29, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd has become one of the founding signatories of the Principles for Responsible Banking, committing to strategically align its business with the United Nation’s (UN) sustainable development goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

As a signatory of the principles, CIMB joins a coalition of 130 banks worldwide, representing over US$47 trillion (RM196 trillion) in assets, committed to play a crucial role towards achieving a sustainable future, the group said in a statement.

Taking place at the start of the UN General Assembly yesterday, the official launch of the UN banking principles marked the beginning of the most significant partnership to date between the global banking industry and the UN, said CIMB.

“The UN Principles for Responsible Banking are a guide for the global banking industry to respond to, drive and benefit from a sustainable development economy,” the statement quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying.

“The principles create the accountability that can realise responsibility, and the ambition that can drive action,” Guterres said at the launch event, attended by the 130 founding signatories and over 45 of their chief executive officers (CEOs).

CIMB group CEO Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz (pic) said: “As a founding member of the UNEP FI (UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative) Principles for Responsible Banking we are convinced that only in an inclusive society, founded on human dignity, equality and the sustainable use of natural resources, can our employees, customers and other stakeholders thrive.”

UNEP FI is the UN-private sector collaboration that includes membership of more than 250 finance institutions around the globe.

“By signing the principles, we commit to using our products, services and relationships to support and accelerate the fundamental changes in our economies and lifestyles necessary to achieve shared prosperity for both current and future generations,” Tengku Zafrul said.

Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UNEP, said a banking industry that plans for the risks associated with climate change and other environmental challenges can not only drive the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, but can also benefit from it.

“When the financial system shifts its capital away from resource-hungry, brown investments to those that back nature as a solution, everybody wins in the long-term,” he said.

CIMB said the principles are supported by a strong implementation and accountability framework.

“By signing them, CIMB commits to being transparent on both its positive and negative impact on the people and planet. CIMB will focus on where it has the greatest impact — in its core business — and will set and implement targets to scale up the positive, and address any negative impacts in line with global and national objectives.

“The principles will also provide CIMB with an effective framework to systematically identify and seize new business opportunities created by the emerging sustainable development economy, while at the same time enabling the bank to effectively identify and address related risks,” the group added.

CIMB is the only banking group in Asean to be a founding member of the Principles for Responsible Banking.