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Century Financial’s Initiative To Strengthen Sustainability In The Financial Sector | |
| Sumita Pawar |
Recently, President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan declared 2023 the Year of Sustainability. In line with his statement, Middle East-based investment services company Century Financial has announced a series of initiatives as part of its contribution towards strengthening sustainability in the financial sector.
According to the reports, Century Financial’s sustainability agenda will primarily focus on forging strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations in the region under the banner "Sustainability and U."
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The initiatives, which are anchored on actively engaging the financial community, will work towards achieving a robust ecosystem that, in turn, will help strengthen the environment, sustainability, and governance efforts (ESG) across the region, as highlighted in the report.
To drive this all-important agenda, Century Financial has appointed veteran industry professional Sameera Fernandes, Director of Sustainability, to initiate and lead ESG initiatives.
According to Sameera, Century Financial is taking a quantum leap in spearheading and rallying the regional financial sector to take decisive and effective climate actions to ultimately achieve a net-zero future.
"To reaffirm our support for the UAE's green development drive leading up to COP28, we are launching an ambitious multi-pronged agenda aimed at driving sustainability initiatives across the company and our industry."
"With the appointment of our Director of Sustainability to lead sustainable business transformation, various strategies, policies, and breakthrough collaborations have been flagged off this year to commence our journey," said Bal Krishen Rathore, Chairman and CEO, Century Financial.
On her part, Sameera Fernandes, Director of Corporate Affairs Sustainability, commented, "Over the course of the next few months, we have initiated several programmes that will actively promote sustainable best practises in the financial space." "We will actively engage with stakeholders to promote sustainable practises that impact the economic, environmental, and social conditions by leveraging the UAE government's focus on sustainability with the impending COP28 climate conference later this year."
The initiatives will be steered by a strategically constituted think tank comprised of banks, wealth management companies, and investment companies brought together to share best practises based on the newly introduced ESG criteria of the GHG reporting standards.
Further, various sustainable finance frameworks, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will be actively incorporated into the reporting.
As further mentioned in the report, as part of the framework, the initiatives will also generate sustainability audits, rating systems, certifications, and best practises across the financial sector to encourage other players in the industry to adopt and introduce similar initiatives.
"In terms of internal initiatives at Century Financial, we are focused on strengthening our communities through financial literacy, from students across universities to frontline workers to corporates, and empowering women to be self-sufficient," Sameera explained.
She added that the financial literacy initiative is ready to be rolled out in the first quarter. These developments also complement the various efforts we are undertaking to incorporate and embed ESG considerations into our approach and operations. Through this, we will be able to have measurable benchmarks in the UAE.
Century Financial has been a pioneer in the UAE’s investment sector, understanding investors' evolving demands and harnessing this allegiance towards impact investing.
Century Financial has recently included ESG-focused instruments in its diverse product offering to complement the shift towards socially responsible investing, according to the report, thereby increasing millennials' and Gen Z's inclination to value and proactively invest in companies that support SDGs.
Century Financial Consultancy LLC (Century Financial) is an award-winning, privately-owned financial services provider headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that specialises in investments and trading in CFDs (Contracts for Difference), forex, indices, shares, commodities, treasuries, and ETFs, along with exchange-traded derivatives.