DBS Equips 1,800 of Its Relationship Managers With Sustainable Financing Skills
by Fintech News Singapore July 11, 2023DBS 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 specialised Climate Activation Workshops.
These workshops which DBS has been organising since December last year is to ensure a robust understanding of the bank’s net zero commitments as it executes towards its decarbonisation targets announced in September 2022.
Through these workshops that DBS jointly developed with external sustainability consultants, participants gain a deeper understanding of climate risk, as well as practical tools to identify suitable transition and sustainable financing opportunities for clients.
These workshops are more specialised than job-specific sustainability training programmes currently offered under the DBS Sustainability Learning Campus, which was launched in late 2022.
The campus houses all sustainability-related training programmes – which encompass basic to more advanced courses – by the DBS Academy for the bank’s 36,000 employees.
Going forward, DBS will incorporate these Climate Activation Workshops as part of the training curriculum for all new Institutional Banking RMs and CRMs.
DBS’ committed sustainable financial transactions – which comprise green loans, renewable energy loans, sustainability loans and transition loans – totalled SGD 61 billion as of end-2022, exceeding its cumulative SGD 50 billion target two years ahead of its 2024 timeline.
Yulanda Chung
Yulanda Chung, Head of Sustainability, Institutional Banking Group, DBS said,
“Our ability to reduce our financed emissions is integrally tied to the success of our clients’ own decarbonisation efforts, and we are committed to helping them on this process. 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 our corporate clients effectively on their decarbonisation efforts.”
