News Brief: Singapore ESG – Tokenised funds in HK – New HK funds platform
Welcome to Ignites Asia's News Brief, a roundup of a few of our top stories from the past week.
Singapore remains "one step ahead" of Hong Kong in encouraging firms to build out green finance capabilities locally, according to Abrdn. The local government's long-term commitment towards sustainable policies and the targeted use of incentives has given asset managers a sense of stability in growing ESG-related headcount, the UK fund firm said.
Hong Kong's proximity and ties to the China market and its considerable sustainable investing opportunities means it is "fantastically placed" to facilitate and benefit from the transition journey onshore going forward, however. Read more about the two financial hubs' ESG opportunities here.
ChinaAMC and Franklin Templeton will be the first firms to roll out tokenised funds in Hong Kong as part of the HKMA's asset tokenisation sandbox. Both managers are partnering with local digital asset platform OSL Digital Securities on tokenised money market funds and wealth management products.
These initiatives come over a year after UBS AM launched the first pilot of a tokenised fund in Singapore under the MAS' own Project Guardian sandbox. Read more about Hong Kong and Singapore's competing asset tokenisation efforts here.
The upcoming launch of Hong Kong's integrated funds platform is expected to lower barriers to funds investment for retail investors. The long-awaited platform, scheduled to roll out in phases at the end of the year, will provide a one-stop portal for subscriptions and redemptions, payments and settlements and fund order routing.
Although the initiative is expected to be voluntary, industry experts hope the platform will be a "catalyst for change" in a market still heavily dominated by retail bank distributors. Read more about the platform here.
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Graph of the week
Asia ex-Japan sustainable investment net flows fell 14 per cent in the third quarter to US$3.1bn, in stark contrast with the 65 per cent increase in sales for global ESG funds in the same period, Morningstar data shows. Read more about regional flows into sustainability products here.
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