Singapore-based financial services group DBS Group announced today the appointment of Helge Muenkel as its new Chief Sustainability Officer. Muenkel joins DBS after over 10 years at ING, most recently serving as Head of Asia Pacific, Sustainable Finance and Global Capital Markets.
In his new role, Muenkel will be responsible for leading DBS’ sustainability and sustainable finance efforts. In the past few years, the bank has announced a series of sustainability commitments, including a pledge to align its lending and investment portfolios with 2050 net zero pathways, as the first Singapore bank to become a signatory to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), and a commitment to finance SGD 50 billion ($37 billion) in renewable, clean-energy and green projects by 2024.
While at ING, Muenkel grew the bank’s regional business of sustainability-related advisory services and sustainable finance transactions across products, and was part of the company’s global Sustainable Finance and Capital Markets management teams as well as the bank’s global Sustainable Finance Quality Board.
Muenkel will be succeeding Mikkel Larsen in the CSO role, who has been named Chief Executive Officer of global carbon exchange and marketplace Climate Impact X, a joint venture of DBS, SGX, Standard Chartered Bank and Temasek.
Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, said:
“The climate issue is an increasingly pressing one, and through sustainable finance, banks play a key role in enabling and catalysing impact. DBS, for one, has committed to being net zero by 2050. At the same time, the problem of social inequality has also surfaced during the pandemic as deserving serious attention, and the bank continues to intensify efforts to support small businesses and communities. With more than 20 years of experience in sustainability and banking, Muenkel is well-placed to build on commitments we have made and steer DBS’ efforts to unlock greater ESG impact across the region.”
