The wager is that transition finance will expand even if the alliances around it do not.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) is doubling down on transition finance in Southeast Asia even as global banks retreat from climate alliances, betting that commercial demand—not pledges—will shape the next phase of sustainable lending.
From 2024 to 2025, major US banks and several European and Canadian lenders left the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), which shut down in October after peaking at 144 members. The pullback has fueled questions about the durability of climate commitments in finance.
Yoonmee Jeong, OCBC’s wholesale banking sustainability head, said the shifting optics has not changed client demand across Asia.
Headlines don’t alter the underlying transition needs of OCBC customers, she told Asian Banking & Finance in a video call. There are “setbacks and uncertainties,” but capital still needs to fund real projects.
The Singapore-based lender ranked as Southeast Asia’s top arranger of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) loans in 2024 and 2025, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
Jeong said the results stem from a sector-focused approach that pairs technical specialists with bankers, letting the bank structure loans linked to industry transition plans.
Her team includes engineers and building specialists who work with property developers on emission standards, as well as advisers focused on maritime fuel shifts and aviation decarbonisation.
The model took several years to assemble and required retraining relationship managers to assess emission data and sector road maps.
“There were a lot of new things to learn: retraining, relearning, all these things. But now if I look at the team, I can say that we have a very solid team with good sector knowledge and reach recognised by our clients,” Jeong said.
The bank is focusing on areas where it expects costs to fall by the end of the decade, including green ammonia and cleaner shipping technologies.
Whilst many of those solutions remain expensive, Jeong said the next five years could determine whether they become commercially viable at scale.
OCBC has been proactively engaging small and medium enterprise (SME) clients on their sustainability transition. Since launching its SME Sustainability Finance Framework in late 2020, the Bank has provided sustainable financing solutions to more than 4,000 SMEs across its key markets as of end 2024.
South Korean-born Jeong said she entered finance because it was one of the few industries, especially in foreign firms, that offered a five-day workweek. South Korea only began phasing in a 40-hour, five-day week in 2004; before that, a 44-hour week was standard, according to the International Labour Organisation.
She began her career in life insurance before moving to Hong Kong to work at BNP Paribas.
Her sustainability career started when she coordinated a sustainable finance deal between a company and an institutional client.
She later became executive director for sustainable finance and investment at BNP Paribas before joining OCBC in 2019.
Jeong said effective leadership requires diversity—not only in gender, but also in nationality, background, and education.
“The role of leadership is to bring people together with different perspectives, harness their unique strengths, and channel that diversity toward achieving a shared goal,” she said.
In 2025, OCBC surpassed its goal of 42% female representation in leadership roles, meaning women held managing director (MD) positions or higher.
OCBC has a MentorMe programme for female employees since 2018, and extended it to all employees regardless of gender in 2023. To date, the programme has facilitated over 900 mentor-mentee matches.
Jeong hopes that people who work with her can receive something positive from her. “It can be knowledge, it can be inspiration, it can be positive energy, it can be support,” she said.
Meanwhile, the lender has not signaled any retreat from its sustainability strategy despite the collapse of the NZBA.
“We are able to commit to this [energy] transition through continued industry collaborations and technological innovations,” she said.
For OCBC, the wager is that transition finance will continue to expand—even if the alliances built around it do not.