London and Hong Kong-listed bank Standard Chartered has launched the first retail banking product in Asia that directly supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For retail clients, the bank is offering a promotional rate of 1.9 percent interest and priority banking clients getting a rate of 2 percent. Liquidity raised will be used to finance climate-friendly projects, small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries, undertake microfinance and provide funds for a variety of sustainable projects. Through its research, the bank chose Singapore as its Asia launch pad as found it has the highest number of high net worth investors in Asia who are interested in sustainable investing. The product, which was developed with sustainability consultancy Sustainalytics, has been launched under Standard Chartered’s new green product framework and comes six months after it was made available to the bank’s European clients. The framework sets the basis for future sustainable products to help fund the SDGs across the bank’s footprint markets, especially in developing countries.

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The Straits Times