SinoPac Takes Home Three Major Taiwan Sustainable Investment Awards
[July 14, 2022, Taipei] The 2022 Taiwan Sustainable Investment Awards (TWSIA) were just announced, and three subsidiaries of SinoPac Holdings, namely SinoPac Securities, SinoPac Securities Investment Service, and SinoPac SITC, won awards of the Institutional Impact (Securities Category) - Exemplary Award, Case Impact - ESG Innovation Silver Award, and Institutional Impact (Securities Investment Trust Category) - Performance Award, respectively. It represented a recognition of SinoPac's achievements in actively promoting ESG sustainable finance from the aspects of governance, investment, products and innovative services.
SinoPac Securities was the only brokerage firm to receive the Exemplary Award for institutional impact in the 2nd Taiwan Sustainable Investment Awards (TWSIA), organized by the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE). SinoPac Securities stated that the fundamental meaning of "Institutional Impact" is in the strategic vision, transparency of disclosure, impact, and effectiveness of sustainable investment. Adhering to the Stewardship Principles for Institutional Investors, SinoPac Securities has formulated its "Responsible Investment Management Guidelines" and "Due Diligence Policy," internalized sustainable practices, incorporated ESG factors into the investment review and evaluation process, and invested in ESG-oriented industries or investment objects and green bonds, as well as holding a large-scale ESG Investment Forum every year to promote the dissemination of ESG investment concepts and realize the positive influence of institutional investors.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service was awarded the Case Impact - ESG Innovation Silver Award for its SinoPac+ Corporate Sustainability Rating System and is the only investment advisor to win the award for two consecutive years. The company noted that the SinoPac+ system, developed by SinoPac, is the first Taiwan stock valuation system based on SASB international standards, providing investors with comprehensive and accurate ESG valuation results. In addition to providing methodological advice through PwC Sustainability Services, the company continues to incorporate sustainability indicators that are important to its investors and those that are important to local companies as part of its evaluations. Currently, more than 256 companies in 25 industries have been evaluated, and in the future, the company will continue to conduct assessments according to the latest sustainability reports and monitor how significant events impact companies. It will also expand the range of companies evaluated and accumulate historical evaluation data, building a more robust database with the goal of becoming the best ESG indicator in the capital market.
SinoPac SITC received the Institutional Impact (Securities Investment Trust Category) - Performance Award for the second time. Since 2020, SinoPac SITC has launched ESG funds every year for three consecutive years to align with its parent company's sustainable financial development blueprint. This year, the portfolio of the ESG funds was expanded from Taiwan to overseas markets and launched the third ESG fund, which actively implements due diligence governance and demonstrates professional, institutional investment. In the future, we will also plan new sustainable financial products that aim for low-carbon transformation from different ESG orientations, industry sectors, or asset areas.
SinoPac SITC, meanwhile, has continued to expand its ESG product line as the number of ESG product investors has grown significantly. The size of its ESG-themed fund increased from $424 million at the end of 2020 to $7.74 billion at the end of 2021, reflecting an over-18-fold increase. The total number of ESG investors also increased from 276 at the end of 2020 to 89,536 at the end of 2021, showing an significant increase and driving a high level of recognition and participation in ESG products among Taiwan's investors.
In line with SinoPac Holdings' 2050 net-zero commitment, its subsidiaries have incorporated 2050 net-zero into their investment and asset management and development objectives. Since 2021, Bank SinoPac, SinoPac Securities, and SinoPac SITC have established investment guidelines for high carbon emission industries. With regard to the environmental and climate-related impacts of high-carbon emission industries, they provide quantitative references, and carbon emissions from industries are included as a sensitive factor to examine the trend of total carbon emissions from industries and carbon emissions by revenue of individual enterprises. In the future, SinoPac will continue to expand its coverage of high-carbon emission industrial and actively manage them.