To facilitate communication between institutional investors and issuing companies is listed as one of the action plans of the 2018-2020 New Corporate Governance Roadmap announced by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Recently, Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) has released the very first integrated ESG (environmental, social, and governance) Dashboard in the world in an effort to encourage institutional investors and issuing companies in Taiwan to place importance on ESG issues. The newly launched platform is expected to be the driver of sustainable transformations and the promoter of international standards for the Taiwanese market.

TDCC President Chu Han-Chiang announced that with coordination and effort, TDCC has partnered with Sustainalytics, FTSE Russell, and ISS, the world’s leading providers of comprehensive ESG research and ratings, this year. The omni-aspect ESG Information System, the first of its kind around the globe and the first all-inclusive ESG information platform initiated by a central securities depository (CSD), is the fruit of such collaboration. At its preliminary stage, the system will offer ESG data for the TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies in Taiwan. More ESG-related services will gradually be put online for more users in the future. The system will keep fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) by upholding sustainability values and adopting responsible investment (RI) solutions.

According to Mr. Chu, ESG indicators have weighed heavily with international investors these years. However, each ESG rating agency has their own yardsticks of analytics. The discrepancy in criteria has also been a hotly discussed issue for investors in the international community. The TDCC ESG Dashboard provides one-stop access to various providers of ESG indexes for TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies. The data and analytics are presented in a more neutral and concrete way to help enterprises enhance their ESG performance and align themselves with international benchmarks.

TDCC Senior Vice President Julie Wang said that the ESG Information System with well-rounded data has been introduced in mid-June. TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies can now make use of the system by registering on the TDCC Investor Relations Platform (TDCC IR Platform). TDCC is also encouraging domestic institutional investors to embrace RI solutions and raising individual investors’ ESG awareness. Starting from Q3 this year, domestic institutional investors will gain entry into customized services that provide investment portfolio data screening and analytics pertaining to their companies’ investment strategies, and individual investors will gain entry into ESG disclosures of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies.

In 2019, TDCC joined the ESG realm and only provided statistics from one single ESG rating team. The strategy is now beginning to bear fruit in 2020. TDCC envisions a closer connection with the international community to work on RI issues and hopes to project a compelling international image to the world.

IR Platform