The Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) on October 28 held the fourth Sustainable Finance Forum on the topic of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Financing & Credit Rating. Around 50 participants from banks attended the forum.
ABC had a privilege to have the experts from Moody’s Investors Service and Moody’s ESG Solutions to share insights and trends in the Sustainable Finance, as well as the service and value they bring to debt issuers and investors.
The forum is to provide all member banks awareness in terms of regional and global sustainable finance and it is part of the ABC’s objective to improve general capacity knowledge of its member banks, said Mr Dith Sochal, Chairman of the Sustainable Finance Committee of the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC).
Mr Sochal added that that the ABC’s objective is to transfer the sustainable finance principles that had been adopted into action and to support all member banks with respect to the journey of embracing and embedding ESG sustainable finance as part of their operations.
At the forum, Mr. Rahul Ghosh, Managing Director for ESG Outreach & Research at Moody’s ESG Solutions, opened the session by discussing trends and standards in Sustainable Finance, including that of Sustainable Bonds in Asia. He also discussed Second Party Opinions, the key elements within them, a typical process required, as well as illustrated further using case studies.
Ms. Rebecca Tan, Vice President and Senior Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at Moody’s Investors Service, gave an overview of Moody’s Bank Rating Methodology and illustrated examples of how final rating levels are arrived at.
Ms. Alka Anbarasu, Senior Vice President in the Financial Institutions Group at Moody’s Investors Service, shared about Environmental, Social, and Governance classifications and considerations, and expanded on how Moody’s incorporate the ESG risk factors into bank credit rating analysis.
