How Can Monetary and Financial Policies Support Sustainability Goals in Asia Through the Recovery and Beyond?

Puan Jessica Chew Cheng Lian (Bank Negara Malaysia), Yulanda Chung (DBS Bank), Chair: Aziz Durrani (The SEACEN Centre), Ulrich Volz (SOAS)

Monetary and financial policies are playing an important role during the current crisis and will continue to do so in the subsequent recovery phase. This webinar will discuss the role of monetary and financial authorities in aligning their crisis responses with sustainability goals. It will address the following question: What can we learn from the environmental impact of policy responses in previous financial crises, including the 2008 and the Asian crises? What positive crisis responses have already been implemented in the COVID-19 crisis that could be emulated elsewhere? What future sustainable crisis responses are being considered (or could be considered) and are there any economic or financial risks or political obstacles? What is the scope for strengthening efforts to enhance environmental risk management and scale up sustainable finance in the current period?

Participation is free but registration is necessary. Please register here .

Speakers:

• Puan Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Deputy Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia
• Yulanda Chung, Head of Sustainability, Institutional Banking, DBS Bank
• Aziz Durrani, Senior Finance Specialist, The SEACEN Centre (Chair)
• Ulrich Volz, Founding Director, SOAS Sustainable Finance Centre, SOAS University of London

The event forms part of the Sustainable Crisis Responses project led by E3G, the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance, the SEACEN Centre, and the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. The project examines the options available to monetary and financial authorities in order to respond to the current economic crisis in a way that is consistent with national commitments to environmental and sustainability goals. The project is funded by the International Network for Sustainable Financial Policy Insights, Research & Exchange (INSPIRE).

Puan Jessica Chew is currently a Deputy Governor at Bank Negara Malaysia. She has over 27 years of experience in financial sector supervision and regulation with the Bank. She is currently responsible for financial stability which covers the regulation and supervision of banks, insurance companies, payment systems and money services. Jessica represents the Bank as an adviser member of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board. Jessica holds a Chartered Banker qualification from the Chartered Banker Institute (Scotland), a Fellow Chartered Banker of Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB) and is an associate member of CPA Australia. She graduated from the University of Melbourne, Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree majoring in accounting and finance.

Yulanda Chung joined DBS in 2017 and is currently Head of Sustainability of Institutional Banking Group. She leads the Bank’s responsible financing framework and advises on environmental and social issues pertaining to transactions. Yulanda was previously Head of Sustainable Finance at Standard Chartered in London, where she established the bank’s sustainable lending agenda. Before joining the banking sector, she was an equity analyst for the mining and building materials sectors at RobecoSAM in Zurich, Switzerland. She graduated with a Master of Science in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University.

Aziz Durrani is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at The SEACEN Centre. Aziz has over 19 years of experience in international banking and finance, and in setting, enforcing and providing training on regulatory policies and standards. He joined the SEACEN Centre in September 2016 on a sponsored career break from the Bank of England. Aziz is responsible for providing technical assistance, capacity building and delivering training programmes to SEACEN’s 35 member and associate member Central Banks and Regulatory Authorities on issues related to Supervision, Financial Stability, Risk Management, Climate Risk and Financial Market Infrastructures. Before joining SEACEN, Aziz spent 7 years working as a Senior Technical Specialist at the Bank of England / Prudential Regulation Authority. He was originally recruited as the Lead Supervisor of RBS’ Non-Core Bank, following RBS’ collapse in 2009. Aziz was responsible for supervising the management, workout and sell-off of RBS’ assets and portfolios, and its eventual wind-down. Aziz then joined the Risk Specialists Directorate and over several years led the stress testing of Wholesale banking book exposures for all the major UK banks, eventually as part of the Bank of England’s Concurrent Stress Test. He also had responsibility for leading the on-site Asset Quality and Provision Adequacy reviews across Wholesale loan portfolios of major banks, both in the UK and globally. During this time, Aziz was also seconded to the Markets Division within the Bank of England, where he led a team that managed the widening of the BoE’s Funding for Lending Scheme to include a variety of new Wholesale asset classes. Aziz began his career in the Strategy, Finance and Economics practice of Andersen Business Consulting in London, and later worked at Standard Chartered Bank UK, covering the Origination, Structuring and Syndication of Structured Trade, Infrastructure and Leveraged Finance loans across the UK, Europe, South Asia and Africa. He also worked at Lloyds Banking Group in Leveraged Finance Loan Restructuring and Workout, and in Asset and Liability Management. Aziz is a graduate in Economics and Philosophy from The University of Nottingham, UK, and also studied for an M.Sc. in Computing for Industry at Imperial College London.

Ulrich Volz is Founding Director of the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance and Reader in Economics at SOAS University of London. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Development Institute and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig. He is a Director of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment and serves on the Advisory Council of the Asian Development Bank Institute and the Board of Sufinda, the Sustainable Financial Data Initiative. Ulrich was the 2017 Banque de France Chair at EHESS in Paris. He also taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) in Tokyo. He spent stints working at the European Central Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, ECB, Bank Indonesia, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Ulrich was part of the UN Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and has advised several governments, central banks, international organisations and development agencies on matters of sustainable finance and development.

Contact email: uv1@soas.ac.uk