Standard Chartered announced plans to increase its push into supporting clients across Asia, Africa and the Middle East with sustainable financing by appointing a Head of Sustainable Finance for Greater China and North Asia, effective today.
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Tracy Wong Harris joins from the Hong Kong Green Finance Association (HKGFA), where she was Deputy Secretary General, and helped position Hong Kong as a leading global green and sustainable finance centre.
Tracy will focus on the Group’s sustainable finance strategy in Greater China and North Asia by developing new products and solutions, further incorporating environmental, social and governance considerations into banking decisions, and identifying sustainable finance opportunities for clients. She will be based in Hong Kong and report to Daniel Hanna, Global Head of Sustainable Finance.
Speaking about the appointment, Daniel Hanna said: “China and North Asia play an incredibly important role in ensuring the world achieves the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. Asia’s stage of growth and the fact that it houses some of the world’s most innovative companies means it is in a good position to ‘sustainability-leapfrog’ other parts of the world, so I’m delighted we could recruit someone of Tracy’s calibre to support our clients.”
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Tracy Wong Harris said: “I am very excited to join Standard Chartered, a bank with solid commitment to align with the Paris Agreement and leading innovative work, such as Bill Winters chairing the Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets. I am confident that we can advance deep decarbonisation in the region and deliver the Bank’s sustainability and climate targets.”
The hire is in addition to several recent key appointments, including:
- Chris Helme, CFO, Sustainable Finance
- Teng Cheng, Director of Finance, Sustainable Finance
- Jaclyn Dove, Managing Director, Head, Strategic Initiatives
- Alex Kennedy, Head, Sustainable Finance Solutions
- Joanne Khew, Lead, Strategic Partnerships, Asia
- Tanya Popeau, Lead, Strategic Partnerships, Europe & Americas
The expansion of the team follows the release of its Impact Report, which quantifies the impact of its USD 3.9bn of Sustainable Assets that are aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its Sustainable Finance portfolio, including loans to renewable energy, healthcare, education as well as Microfinance and SME lending in low-income countries.
The Bank is committed to rapidly growing sustainable finance and to increase lending into areas aligned with the SDGs, such as the USD1 billion of not-for-profit capital being deployed to help clients produce equipment that will help in the fight against COVID-19.
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