Maybank wins two honours at ESGBusiness Awards 2025
The bank was recognised for its decarbonisation initiatives and efforts to protect the Malayan tiger.
Maybank won the Net-zero Award - Banking and Wildlife Protection Award - Malaysia in the ESGBusiness Awards 2025. The recognition highlights the bank’s leadership in both advancing sustainable finance and safeguarding biodiversity in Malaysia.
The bank’s net-zero strategy is built on science-based targets and innovative frameworks designed to decarbonise Southeast Asia’s most carbon-intensive sectors. The strategy is anchored on providing equitable access to sustainable finance, fostering partnerships, and closely monitoring financed emissions. In 2024, the bank launched its Net-Zero White Paper covering the palm oil and power sectors. By 2025, the scope expanded to include steel, aluminium, commercial real estate, and retail automotive, making Maybank the first commercial bank outside Europe to set a decarbonisation target for retail vehicle financing.
Maybank applies the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials methodology across loans, bonds, and other portfolios, ensuring comprehensive assessment of financed emissions. Monthly monitoring allows them to track progress and align transactions with their net-zero commitments. To guide product development, they introduced their Sustainable Product Framework in 2022, reviewed annually, and complemented it with a Transition Finance Framework launched at COP28. These tools enable green and transition financing across diverse sectors.
To promote an inclusive transition, Maybank introduced myimpact SME, supporting 1.2 million small and medium enterprises in Malaysia with sustainable financing and capacity-building. The initiative also includes HERpower, which supported 91 women-owned businesses with RM135m (US$31.75m) mobilised in 2024. As a Steering Group member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, the bank plays a role in shaping global standards whilst advocating for Southeast Asian priorities.
In parallel with its climate initiatives, Maybank strengthens tiger conservation in Malaysia through a long-term partnership with WWF-Malaysia. Focused on the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex, one of the last strongholds of the Malayan tiger, the programme supports anti-poaching efforts, prey recovery, and community empowerment. Since 2016, nearly 150 indigenous rangers have been mobilised through Project Stampede, conducting forest patrols, deactivating snares, and monitoring wildlife.
These efforts resulted in the removal of 240 active wires and a 98% reduction in snares across 70,000km of forest terrain. Maybank invested RM12.11m (USD$2.85m) into the programme, reinforcing its commitment to biodiversity. In 2023, Royal Belum State Park earned Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) accreditation, making Malaysia the first Southeast Asian nation to achieve this recognition for tiger conservation.
The ESGBusiness Awards celebrates companies that are leading the way in building a sustainable future. The awards programme honours businesses that demonstrate outstanding commitment and achievement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices.
The ESGBusiness Awards is presented by ESGBusiness. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2026 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding commitment and achievement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez-Difuntorum at [email protected].
