Sustainable finance ‘talent war’ erupts in Hong Kong amid rise in regulatory demands, green products

It is already very competitive in Hong Kong, says Asia-Pacific CEO of French bank Societe Generale

A government working group on attracting foreign talent and nurturing it locally hopes to announce something later this year

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Hong Kong’s Central business district. About US$12 billion of green bonds and loans for projects with environmental benefits were issued in the city last year. The governments plans to issue US$22.5 billion of green bonds in the next five years. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:00pm, 19 Sep 2021Updated: 10:18pm, 19 Sep 2021

A rising demand for corporate sustainability data disclosures, strategy formulation and green finance products issuances has led to the emergence of a “talent war” in Hong Kong as it vies to become a regional green finance centre, finance executives said.

“It has already been very competitive in Hong Kong, where we have seen in the past few months [an escalating] talent war in the banking industry,” Gaelle Olivier, the Asia-Pacific CEO of French bank Societe Generale (SG), told the EU-HK Green Way conference last week.

As requirements for environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance disclosures by listed firms and climate risks reporting by investment funds are stepped up, talent demand will continue to increase, said Julia Leung, deputy CEO of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission.

Under rules that took effect in July, listed firms must report direct and indirect greenhouse gases emission volumes, describe emission and energy use efficiency targets and disclose measures taken to achieve them. They should also describe relevant climate change risks and opportunities, and actions taken to manage them.

For fund houses, after a 12 to 15-month preparatory period, those managing assets worth HK$8 billion (US$1.02 billion) or more must provide greenhouse gas emissions data for their products’ underlying investments and on the fund level.

They must also develop a plan within a “reasonable” time frame to evaluate the resilience of their investment strategies under different degrees of global warming in the future.