The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, announced the release of its finalized “Guidelines on Environmental Risk Management – Transition Planning,” setting out its supervisory expectations for banks, asset managers and insurance companies to manage the transition and physical risks they and their portfolios face from climate change.
According to MAS, the new guidelines are aimed at supporting financial institutions in building effective risk assessment and risk management capabilities for better resilience against climate-related risks, and include key requirements to assess and manage physical and transition risks by adapting business models, governance and risk management practices, engage clients and portfolio companies, and to keep pace with the development of knowledge and capabilities relating to the measurement and management of climate-related risks.
Among the key expectations common to each group in the new documents is guidance for the institutions to take an engagement approach with high-climate risk portfolio companies and customers, rather than indiscriminately divesting or withdrawing. For example, in its guidance to asset manager, which is echoed in its guidance to banks and insurers, MAS said:
“Asset managers should not indiscriminately divest from investee companies with higher climate-related risks. This could increase the risk of stranded assets and contribute to a disorderly transition that would be detrimental for the system as a whole – and potentially the asset manager itself as well.”
The documents add that each group should engage investee companies and customers “in a risk-proportionate manner, and provide them with an opportunity to identify and manage climate-related risks,” and recommend taking a “multi-year view in engaging,” noting (for asset managers, for example) that “the point-in-time emissions level of an investee company alone may not mean a higher level of risk to the asset manager/its investment portfolio if the investee company is in the process of implementing risk management measures.”
Additional elements common to the guidelines for banks, asset managers and insurers include requirements for each to embed climate risk into governance structures, with board oversight of climate-related risk, and the integration of climate risk into risk appetite and business strategy. The documents also guide the financial firms to build climate data capabilities, including collecting data from customers and portfolio companies.
Notably, the documents emphasize the need to approach engagement and data collection in a “risk-proportionate” manner, taking into account the level of risk and materiality of the portfolio company or customer, as well as the size and capabilities of the companies.
While the documents outline common expectations across each group of financial institution, they also include tailored expectations for each, with the guidance for banks, for example, focusing on credit risk and lending relationships with corporate borrowers, while the insurance guidance emphasizes underwriting exposures and the impact of climate change on claims and insurability, and the asset management guidance includes a focus on portfolio construction and stewardship.
Ms Ho Hern Shin, Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision) at MAS, said:
“These Guidelines support FIs in building their risk management capabilities in response to both physical and transition risks. The financial sector plays an important role in supporting customers as they navigate the risks from climate change. By engaging their customers and investee companies in a risk proportionate manner, FIs can build better resilience to risks and support broader financial stability.”
Click here to access the MAS guidelines for banks , insurers and asset managers.
