Singlife with Aviva Appoints Matter for 360° Sustainability Data

Homegrown financial services company Singlife with Aviva has appointed European sustainability data provider Matter to provide a comprehensive view of its sustainability performance. Matter’s leading ESG platform will help Singlife understand the sustainability impact and performance of its global investments.

As the focus on sustainable finance gains momentum in Singapore and around the world, Singlife is taking a decisive, industry-leading step to not only meet but exceed the expectations of regulators and discerning consumers. Singlife’s Group Chief Investment Officer Kim Rosenkilde said, “We currently serve a significant proportion of Singapore’s population, so it is natural for us to act as more than an insurer or a financial services provider. We must be a responsible steward of the funds we manage. Gaining more insights into the sustainability profile of our investments is a key part of that stewardship”.

With Matter’s platform, Singlife will be able to monitor key environmental risks to its investments and in future, present more extensive reports to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as part of its disclosure requirements. This aligns with Singlife’s commitment to create a positive impact and support Singapore’s commitment towards Net Zero by 2050.

“Monitoring, mitigating and disclosing various environmental risks in our investments is a complex task, requiring transparent data and precise analyses. Matter’s platform helps us gain some of these insights in a fast and transparent way. We see a big potential to enable ESG reporting in more of our services. We ultimately want to help our clients achieve financial freedom, and we also want to help them understand exactly where and how their money is being invested in”, says Rosenkilde.

“Compared to the European scene, ESG investing in Singapore is in an emerging and rapidly growing stage. We are seeing how companies like Singlife think beyond risk management and compliance, which is in line with our core belief at Matter - that sustainability and ESG insights need to be more transparent and intuitive, so that more people can use them to make decisions”, says Emil Fuglsang, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Matter.

Matter has worked with financial institutions in Singapore since 2020, in part through collaborations with MAS and the Investment Management Association of Singapore. Matter is an official partner of Nasdaq and has provided clients across Asia, Europe and North America with ESG analytics since 2019.

Singlife recently announced a US$50 million investment in the Altrium Sustainability Fund I, a private equity fund of funds managed by Azalea Investment Management Pte Ltd, which is wholly owned by Temasek. It enables institutional and other accredited investors to build an ESG-focused investment portfolio.

Earlier this year, Singlife co-seeded the Qblue Global Sustainable Leaders Fund launched by Copenhagen-based Qblue Balanced, which helps institutional investors achieve investment objectives by providing sustainable solutions to obtain more diversified and robust portfolios.

Singlife also invested in the CI Green Credit Fund by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which focuses on funding green energy infrastructure projects, such as solar power generation, onshore and offshore wind generation, and other renewable power generation assets like hydro power and geothermal power.

Singlife is proud to be a Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Supporter and is working to become a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Sustainable Insurance by Q4 2022.