Developing Green Finance Solutions and Markets

MAS expanded its support for green and sustainable financing through the Sustainable Bond Grant Scheme (SBGS)

February 2019

MAS launched a Green Bond Grant Scheme in June 2017 to support the issuance of green bonds. In February 2019, the scheme was expanded to include social and sustainability bonds and renamed SBGS. The scheme enabled issuers to offset the additional costs of issuing green, social and sustainability bonds as compared to conventional bonds issuance, and promoted the adoption of internationally accepted standards on sustainability.

MAS would be establishing Centres of Excellence to drive green finance research and training

Ongoing

MAS would be collaborating with local and international universities to establish Centres of Excellence in Singapore that would contribute to Asia-focused green finance research. These centres would support the development of innovative green finance solutions, examine perspectives on financial policy and regulation, and grow the pipeline of green finance talent to support the financial sector.

MAS would be developing a grant scheme for green and sustainability-linked loans to provide a wider range of green financing options for companies

Ongoing

The scheme would defray the costs of external review and bank frameworks for such loans. This would increase the ease of loan origination and reduce expenses for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and encourage SMEs, corporates, as well as banks to integrate green and sustainability issues in their financing discussions and decisions.

To support an increase in activity, MAS would also anchor green finance external review, certification, assurance and ratings firms in Singapore, as they would play a key role in ensuring the transparency and integrity of green finance solutions. This would strengthen local technical capacity for green finance-related assurance and verification.