KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Bursa Malaysia Bhd has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd and OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd to help public listed companies (PLCs) advance the adoption of environment, social and governance (ESG) practices in their businesses.

Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift said the collaboration opens another window of opportunity for a wide range of collaborative activities, particularly in the era of advancing ESG adoption among Malaysian PLCs.

"Sustainable financing will provide PLCs the opportunity to accelerate their ESG adoption, while also enhancing their ESG ratings for inclusion in the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index, which is the Malaysian capital market’s leading ESG Index.

"These will also benefit from collaboration, branding and capacity building exercises. This include exposures, exchange, investor relations, engagement and event platforms, as well as the opportunity to participate in specialised technical workshops on climate related disclosures,” he said in his opening remarks at the #financing4ESG: A Collaboration between Bursa Malaysia and Malaysian Financial Institutions virtual MoU signing ceremony today.

He said that according to recent analysis, portfolios with ESG mandates are expected to reach US$160 trillion by 2036.

"This would mean close to 100 per cent ESG integration to funds management. Furthermore, there is a large body of data suggesting that value based and ESG investments have provided comparable and in many cases better financial returns than conventional investments,” he added.

Meanwhile, Alliance Bank chief executive officer Joel Kornreich said the bank wants to help business owners adopt ESG practices and innovations to reduce the carbon footprint because when businesses make sustainable choices, they can be a force for good for the community and the environment.

"Our collaboration with Bursa Malaysia enables us to help businesses large and small to innovate and grow sustainably via addressing their needs holistically.

"With the help of Bursa Malaysia, we will perform sustainability gap analysis to help businesses identify areas for improvement and develop a roadmap towards improving their sustainability ratings.

"We help mid to small cap companies with supply chain sustainability requirements to open up for market opportunities,” he said.

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) chief executive office Datuk Ong Eng Bin said the collaboration would leverage on each other’s competencies to accelerate the adoption of ESG practices among Malaysian PLCs because they are the forefront of businesses.

"Working collaboratively with Bursa Malaysia, we remain focused on our plan to promote ESG best practices among the PLC community and encouraged more to come forward In the new normal,” he said. — Bernama