Expert: Rise of green finance creating big need for ESG investing talent

China's fast-growing green finance market has been spurring the demand for environmental, social and governance — ESG — investing talent, said Paul Moody, managing director of global partnerships and client solutions at the CFA Institute, the global association of investment management professionals.

In such a context, the CFA Institute could provide a bridge for China to global markets, bringing in global best practices into China and giving the rest of the world China's great experience, he said.

"CFA" refers to chartered financial analyst. The CFA Institute is known for its CFA Program, which grants the CFA charter, a designation globally recognized as the gold standard in investment management. To become CFA charter-holders, candidates must satisfy a series of requirements, including passing three levels of exams and obtaining four years of relevant work experience.

China is the fastest-growing market for the CFA Program. There are more than 190,000 CFA charter-holders globally, and around 10,000 in China.

"What's brilliant in China is that when it decides to do something, it can do it much more quickly than other countries," said Moody.

"Since 2019 to date, it has become the largest market for green finance, and particularly green bonds and sustainability bonds … It feels like that's only the start of the journey."

The association launched the Certificate in ESG Investing program last year, which aims to meet the needs of practitioners in investment roles who want to learn how to analyze and integrate material ESG factors into their daily investment analysis practice.

Having provided the certificates to more than 25,000 candidates globally, the association hopes to obtain approval to test candidates on the Chinese mainland by the end of the year.

According to Moody, with China's stable economic growth, unwavering commitment to opening-up, and rapid progress in the ESG industry, global asset managers and owners "all want to be involved in the China success story".

On the other hand, people across firms, regulators and universities in China are also looking to see if the CFA Institute can help in terms of education solutions to nurture and grow talent and expertise, he said.

"Your growth rate is going to be higher than the developed economies in the future … With China leading the market in these (green) areas, you will see capital flows attracted to that," he said.

According to a report released by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, in February, China's green finance continued to see rapid growth last year, with outstanding green loans denominated in yuan and foreign currencies growing by 38.5 percent year-on-year to 22.03 trillion yuan ($3.18 trillion).