Sustainable finance ‘talent war’ erupts in Hong Kong amid rise in regulatory demands, green products

On 16 September 2021, EuroCham, along with the EU Office to Hong Kong and Macao, hosted The Green Way, a sustainability forum wherein government officials and industry experts engaged in a dialogue to pinpoint key areas of focus for the respective parties to focus on to drive their climate agenda forward.

In response to the important conversations that were had at the event, several press staff were present at the event.

A rising demand for corporate sustainability data disclosures, strategy formulation and green finance products issuances has led to the emergence of a “talent war” in Hong Kong as it vies to become a regional green finance centre, finance executives said.

“It has already been very competitive in Hong Kong, where we have seen in the past few months [an escalating] talent war in the banking industry,” Gaelle Olivier, the Asia-Pacific CEO of French bank Societe Generale (SG), told the EU-HK Green Way conference last week.