Bank SinoPac clinches two wins at ESGBusiness Awards
It has provided solutions for green financing and to alleviate migrant workers’ challenges.
Taiwan-based banking company Bank SinoPac was honoured during the latest ESGBusiness Awards for its financial solutions for foreign migrant workers, as well as its various green programmes.
In collaboration with fintech partners, Bank SinoPac offers migrant workers the convenience of applying for virtual account services, and furnishes them with virtual account numbers for seamless payment processing.
These virtual account payment avenues are incredibly versatile, encompassing major convenience store chains, ATMs throughout Taiwan, mobile banking, and more. This empowers migrant workers to effortlessly transfer funds from various locations across Taiwan, around the clock.
This financial solution comes as most foreign migrant workers often resort to illegal underground channels for remitting money to their hometowns. This is primarily driven by language barriers, the nature of their work, difficulties in adhering to conventional bank operating hours, as well as concerns related to fraud risks and exorbitant fees.
As such, Bank SinoPac shortens cross-border remittance time by integrating its services to major payment channels and cooperating with fintech partners to use virtual accounts to collect payments instantly, and real-time API functions so the fintech partners can immediately receive the information flow as soon as the payment is processed.
Bank SinoPac has successfully facilitated remittance services for over 110,000 migrant workers to date. In the future, it aims to continue enhancing its comprehensive payment services, expediting remittance processes, and foster a complete financial ecosystem that benefits migrant workers, fintech companies, and banks alike, creating a mutually beneficial scenario for all parties involved.
This capability has been recognised as the Inclusion and Diversity Award - Taiwan winner during the awards programme.
Meanwhile, Bank SinoPac has also made great contributions concerning the national policy on net zero transitions.
Amongst the innovations it has provided is the raising of the feasibility of solar photovoltaic financing using a project financing model that eliminates the traditional need for collateral and guarantors. As of June 2023, the total capacity of solar photovoltaic installations that are financed by Bank SinoPac has reached 3.2GW which creates a market share of 30% in Q3 2023.
The bank has also pioneered research on fishery-electricity symbiosis. Cooperating with relevant business owners to solve aquaculture management issues, Bank SinoPac completed seven large-scale syndicated loans for fishery-electricity symbiosis projects, creating an unrivaled achievement in the banking industry.
Bank SinoPac also continues to facilitate the innovation of green finance and expands its business into the areas of geothermal and small hydro generation. By researching the ecosystem of the green energy industry and participating in the operation of industry associations, it has completed the first financing for geothermal energy in Taiwan in 2022, and also the first financing for small hydropower in Taiwan in 2023.
With the free trade market of green energy opened by the new legislation passed in 2017, the bank was the first in the industry to propose the idea of combining green energy trading with a trust management platform. It is also the first to carefully study the trading mechanism of green energy, thereby completing the first case of green energy trading with a trust management platform in the region.
“Bank SinoPac successfully established its green financing ecosystem and collectively contributed to the progress of Taiwan's green energy transition policies. All the dedication has made Bank SinoPac the leader and pioneer of Taiwan's green energy financing organiser,” the company said.
As of now, the bank has completed 13 syndicated loans for solar photovoltaic, seven syndicated loans for fishery-electricity symbiosis, and five syndicated loans for energy storage. The total lending for these projects has reached NT$120.7b. This accelerates the pace to meet the energy transition target.
The bank has brought home the Renewable Energy Financing Programme Award - Taiwan win.
The ESGBusiness Awards honours businesses that demonstrate outstanding commitment and achievement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, as well as those leading the way in building a sustainable future.
The ESGBusiness Awards is presented by ESGBusiness. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 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 at [email protected].
