OneConnect Financial Technology and Singapore Exchange collaborate to address the region's ESG reporting needs

• MOU signifies milestone in the development of ESG platform to support SGX-listed companies in their reporting needs
• Collaboration sets OneConnect in pole position in APAC for using technologies in enhancing reporting and applying ESG information

SINGAPORE, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (OneConnect) the leading technology-as-a-service platform provider and an associate of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An"), today said it had entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore Exchange (SGX) to collaborate and build an environmental, social and governance (ESG) platform to facilitate and simplify the ESG disclosure processes of companies listed on SGX.

This collaboration is part of efforts to develop and promote a sustainable ecosystem by raising the quality of ESG disclosures and promoting the application and integration of ESG factors across capital market stakeholders in the long term. The collaboration places OneConnect as the ESG trailblazer of the Asia Pacific region, deploying a suite of tech solutions that establishes a framework and streamlines ESG reporting through specified standard indicators and templates.

The platform will help companies listed on SGX to efficiently manage and make their sustainability disclosures for possible benchmarking more transparent. This may help to improve the standard of overall ESG performance in the long run. The platform will also help overcome common challenges faced by companies and investors when dealing with ESG information. These challenges include lack of comparability, changing investors' demand, as well as the evolving business landscape and regulations.

Features of the platform will include workflow management systems, report and visualisation modules and an ESG disclosure framework mapping to meet listed companies' ESG reporting and data processing needs. The partnership will bring together relevant resources such as ESG datasets and domain expertise while adding new functionalities progressively to better serve companies, investors, research analysts and relevant stakeholders.

As an associate and the preferred tech partner of Ping An, OneConnect has teamed up with Ping An to deliver ESG solutions for companies outside of China. Ping An itself is the first company in China to participate in the United Nation's Principles for Sustainable Insurance framework, and the first insurer in China to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. Ping An has leveraged its "finance + technology" expertise to develop the Ping An AI-ESG Platform to track, measure and monitor its internal ESG performance. Using artificial intelligence, natural language processing technologies and other ESG tools including greenwashing detection and climate value-at-risk asset-repricing models, the Ping An AI-ESG Platform captures and computes the five-year ESG scores of all Chinese A-share companies for its benchmarking and investment-decision making.  

Ms Jessica Tan, Co-CEO of Ping An Group, said, "As a champion of ESG, Ping An believes in 'tech for social good' where technologies can aptly enable every company to become a responsible corporate citizen. With the development of Ping An's own artificial intelligence-driven ESG framework in China – we see the synergy in sharing and integrating our expertise in ESG into a platform that can be adopted by other companies, thereby bolstering the ESG culture across Asia Pacific."

Ms Tan Bin Ru, CEO (SEA), OneConnect Financial Technology, shared, "With ESG taking centre-stage in the global scene, companies are increasingly subject to a set of non-financial reporting of ESG factors to meet investors' demands and regulatory requirements. This is an opportune time and an esteemed privilege for OneConnect to join hands to develop the ESG platform with SGX. This is a remarkable moment for us to be able to tap on our expertise and work alongside SGX in creating and implementing a robust platform for SGX-listed companies to better their journey on ESG reporting and strengthen their sustainability risk management."

Mr Michael Syn, Senior Managing Director and Head of Equities, SGX, said, "Investors globally are placing increasing importance on sustainability considerations, leading to significant growth in capital allocated to ESG strategies. As a result, both investors and issuers desire ESG data to be more transparent, standardised and accessible. The data and workflow platform will help SGX-listed companies report with more effective alignment to major disclosure standards. The focus is on a core set of indicators that are quantitative in nature and normalised for comparability. This complements issuers' materiality-based reporting that are highly specific to each listed company's business context. For investors, the benefit is more seamless integration of this core set of indicators into their investment strategies and capital allocation across portfolios, lowering the information friction they currently face."

SGX, as a front-line market regulator, has played an integral part in driving disclosures through rulemaking and capacity building. Mandatory sustainability reporting was implemented in Singapore since 2016. This has been an area of constant progress as international standards continue to be refined. SGX has also been making a bigger push in sustainability with a S$20-million multi-pronged plan to expand its ESG-focused products, services and platforms, as well as to build capacity for the financial ecosystem, strengthen internal capabilities and increase CSR commitments.

About OneConnect Financial Technology

OneConnect (NYSE: OCFT) is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. The Company's platform provides cloud-native technology solutions that integrate extensive financial services industry expertise with market-leading technology. The Company's solutions provide technology applications and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions. Together they enable the Company's customers' digital transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks, improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs.

Our technology-as-a-service platform strategically covers multiple verticals in the financial services industry, including banking, insurance and asset management, across the full scope of their businesses – from sales and marketing and risk management to customer services, as well as technology infrastructure such as data management, program development, and cloud services.

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 218 million retail customers and 598 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An focuses on two over-arching domains of activity, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", covering the provision of financial and health care services through our integrated financial services platform and our ecosystems; in financial services, health care, auto services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" transformation strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2020, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and ranked 21st in the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 38th in the 2020 WPP Kantar Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list.

For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com, and follow us on LinkedIn - PING AN

About Singapore Exchange

Singapore Exchange is Asia's leading and trusted market infrastructure, operating equity, fixed income and derivatives markets to the highest regulatory standards. It also operates Asia's only multi-partner, multi-asset exchange-led sustainability platform (sgx.com/first).  

As Asia's most international, multi-asset exchange, SGX provides listing, trading, clearing, settlement, depository and data services, with about 40% of listed companies and over 80% of listed bonds originating outside of Singapore. SGX is the world's most liquid international market for the benchmark equity indices of China, India, Japan and ASEAN and offers commodities and currency derivatives products. Headquartered in AAA-rated Singapore, SGX is globally recognised for its risk management and clearing capabilities. For more information, please visit www.sgx.com.

SOURCE OneConnect