DBS upskills about 1,800 employees in transition and sustainable financing

Following an increasing focus on sustainability in finance, DBS developed curated climate activation workshops in line with its decarbonisation targets announced earlier in September 2022.

DBS announced on Monday (10 July 2023) that it has upskilled more than 1,600 Institutional Banking relationship managers (RMs) and 170 credit risk managers (CRMs) in transition and sustainable financing practices.

As part of its upskilling programme, the bank enrolled the employees in specialised climate activation workshops organised by the bank since December 2022, in efforts to equip them with a better understanding of its net zero commitments as it works towards its decarbonisation targets announced earlier in September 2022.

Designed in collaboration with external sustainability consultants, the workshops covered the topics of climate risk, and an avenue to acquire practical tools to identify suitable transition and sustainable financing opportunities for clients.

Moving forward, DBS said, it will include these climate activation workshops in the training curriculum for all new Institutional Banking RMs and CRMs for consistency in driving sustainability conversations with corporate clients.

These workshops are said to be specialised than the job-specific sustainability training programmes currently offered under the DBS Sustainability Learning Campus launched in late 2022. For the bank's 36,000 employees, the campus accommodates all sustainability-related training programmes offered by the DBS Academy, which range from introductory to advanced courses.

Over the past two years, the bank has upskilled close to 500 of its RMs from the DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client arms in sustainable investing, noting that more than 60% of its clients' portfolio presently are made up of sustainable investments (MSCI BBB-rating).

DBS affirmed that these targets and initiatives come in line with Singapore’s increasing focus on becoming a sustainable finance hub, and align with national initiatives such as the Green Finance Action Plan, which aims to foster the development of sustainable finance capabilities in Singapore,  assist the transition to a greener economy, and open up opportunities for the banking and financial services sector to create jobs related to sustainability.

Yulanda Chung, Head of Sustainability, Institutional Banking Group, DBS, commented: "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."