Ep 38 Building sustainable finance regulation: the ASEAN experience, ft Eugene Wong

The Asia Climate Finance Podcast

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Decarbonisation efforts start with the commitment by a government. Once the broad policy is set, the real hard work of regulation begins. To understand and advance sustainable finance it is absolutely imperative to understand this work. In this episode our guest is Eugene Wong who shares his unique insights on the Southeast Asian experience. Eugene is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia. The Institute is a neutral, convening platform to bring together different stakeholders to advance the sustainability agenda in ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asia Nations). The actors include policy makers, regulators, industry, academia, and others, and are all focused on Southeast Asia’s financial sector as a catalyst for ASEAN’s sustainable agenda. Today, for example, the Institute is a host to the ASEAN Taxonomy Board collaborating with all of the capital markets regulators in Southeast Asia.
References: ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance version 1 (Nov 2021); ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance version 2 (June 2023); ASEAN Transition Finance Guidance (Oct 2023);
ABOUT EUGENE: Eugene Wong is the Chief Executive Officer of SFIA, an independent institute established to catalyse ideas on Sustainable Finance at the policy level in ASEAN, as well as propel action in support of those policy ideas. SFIA is currently the Host of the ASEAN Taxonomy Board and convenor of the ASEAN Capital Market Regulators’ Industry Advisory Panel on Sustainable Finance. Eugene was previously the Managing Director, Corporate Finance & Investments of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). He also served as a member of the Audit Oversight Board in Malaysia and was an Adviser to the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board. He oversaw the SC’s ASEAN related initiatives and was a Chair of the Deputies of the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) and the Co-Chair of its Sustainable Finance Working Group. The ASEAN Green Bond Standards, ASEAN Social Bond Standards and ASEAN Sustainability Bond Standards were issued during his tenure as Chair of the Deputies of the ACMF. In addition, he was a Co-Chair of the ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Market Development. Eugene represents SFIA as an observer to the International Capital Market Association’s Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles, Sustainability Bond Guidelines and Sustainability-linked Loans Guidelines Group. Eugene is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Fellow of CPA Australia and a Chartered Accountant of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

HOST, PRODUCTION, ARTWORK: Joseph Jacobelli | MUSIC: Ep0-29 The Open Goldberg Variations, Kimiko Ishizaka Ep30- Orchestra Gli Armonici – Tomaso Albinoni, Op.07, Concerto 04 per archi in Sol - III. Allegro. | FEEDBACK: [e-mail].