SINGAPORE - CIMB Group Holdings has become a member of the United Nations' (UN) Environment Programme Finance Initiative Principles for Responsible Banking (UNEP-FI), making it the only banking group in Asean to be a founding member of the sustainable initiative.

The core UNEP-FI group, made up of 27 member banks, aims to help redefine the global banking industry's role and responsibilities in shaping a more sustainable future. It will do this by spearheading efforts to align with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, as well as national and regional frameworks; setting the global benchmark for sustainable banking; requiring signatory banks to set goals for and report on their contribution to social, environmental and economic targets to ensure accountability and transparency; and challenging the banking industry to play a leading role in creating a more sustainable future.

Zafrul Aziz, group chief executive officer of CIMB Group, said: "CIMB is fully committed to achieve UNEP-FI's objectives to help transform global banking practices to ensure the industry creates a positive impact not just economically, but also socially and environmentally. Our membership of the UNEP-FI also complements CIMB's own ongoing initiative to embed sustainability into all aspects of our operations group-wide, which will be a key focus area in our next mid-term growth plan."

As a member, CIMB will contribute towards the development of the principles, which will involve consultation with stakeholders such as civil society organisations, banking associations, regulators and UN bodies. The launch of the draft principles for global consultation is planned during the UNEP FI Global Roundtable 2018 to be held on Nov 26 in Paris, France.

Other members of the group include Barclays (United Kingdom), BNP Paribas (France), Hana Financial Group (South Korea), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (China), ING (Netherlands), Santander (Spain), Westpac Group (Australia) and YES Bank (India).