DBS has upskilled over 1,600 institutional banking relationship managers (RMs) and 170 credit risk managers (CRMs) to deepen their knowledge in sustainable financing practices through its Climate Activation Workshops.
The workshops were developed with external sustainability consultants, and have been going on since last December. Through them, participants gained a deeper understanding of climate risk, as well as practical tools to identify suitable transition and sustainable financing opportunities for their corporate clients.
“Our RMs play a crucial role as catalysts in supporting our clients on their sustainability journeys. That is why we have invested in curating tailored workshops that go beyond the bank’s foundational sustainability curriculum so as to equip our RMs with the right tools to partner with our corporate clients effectively on their decarbonisation efforts,” says Yulanda Chung, DBS’ head of Sustainability for the Institutional Banking Group.
DBS will be incorporating the Climate Activation Workshops into the training curriculum for all new institutional banking RMs and CRMs to ensure consistency in driving sustainability conversations with corporate clients.
Besides those workshops, the DBS Sustainability Learning Campus offers the bank’s 36,000 employees with sustainability-related training programmes. The bank has also upskilled close to 500 of its RMs from the DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client in sustainable investing over the past two years. More than 60% of its clients' portfolio is now made up of sustainable investments (MSCI BBB-rating), surpassing its 50% target two years ahead of its 2023 timeline.
Due to all its sustainability efforts, DBS’ committed sustainable financial transactions – which comprise green loans, renewable energy loans, sustainability loans and transition loans – totalled $61 billion as of end-2022, exceeding its cumulative $50 billion target two years ahead of its 2024 timeline.
