As the Asian banking sector ups the ante in its efforts to shift toward more eco-friendly practices, the Green Finance Industry Taskforce found what could be a perfect match in its search for sustainable solutions, as the Thales Group presented the most comprehensive green portfolio to the Green Finance Action Plan 2.0 in Taiwan.
Convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the task force’s aim is to cut down the sector’s overall environmental impact through green alternatives that would reduce carbon footprints.
By providing a range of eco-friendly solutions such as bio-sourced materials, Thales has proven its quality of service through partnerships with DBS Bank of Taiwan, Standard Chartered in Malaysia, and UOB of Singapore as their green solutions choice.
In Taiwan, DBS bank bolstered its efforts to uphold the three main sustainable development axes, namely “Responsible Banking”, “Responsible Banking Practices”, and “Creating Social Impact”, by introducing the DBS Eco Card: Asia’s first bio-sourced credit card.
Thanks to this innovation, DBS Bank Taiwan increased awareness of eco-friendly banking options among clients and garnered the 2020 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award, for their sustainability efforts.
Meanwhile, in its bid to attain the title of the world’s most sustainable and eco-friendly bank, Standard Chartered focuses on sustainable social and environmental development, particularly through its CarbonNeutral® credit card, participation in the Thales carbon offset programme, and contributions to legitimate carbon reduction programs such as the Acre Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil.
Aiming for credit and debit card issuance carbon neutrality, Standard Chartered launched its CarbonNeutral® card globally, while the Thales pools together expert consultancies to aid in measuring the bank’s total carbon emission from card production in order to determine the needed offset.
To ensure that a sustainable future can be achieved with its clients, UOB’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy has made one of Asia’s largest banking institutions a force for green as its financial solutions and services simplify eco-friendly options for clients to adopt greener lifestyles.
Likewise, the Bank recently unveiled its UOB EVOL Card, which uses a bio-sourced, corn-based material known as Polylactic Acid (PLA), as the first of its kind in Singapore, intended for the eco-conscious Generation Z client.
Adding to Thales’ impressive lineup of green solutions, the group itself has created the Thales Reclaimed Ocean Plastic Card made from 70% coastal area plastic waste and equivalent to one polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle and is a strong eco-solution along with the provider’s contactless banking technology offerings.
Thales Banking and Payment Solutions Senior Vice President (Asia) Michael Au explained that post-pandemic, the international financial sector has put a higher premium on “building back better and greener”.
In addition, contactless technology for transactions, mobility and authentication are part of our daily lives. Thales’ broad portfolio of solutions are helping the financial sector, not just in how they operate efficiently but also in how they’re perceived by their customers and the values that their company stands for” he added.
