Is the secret to sustainable finance at our fingertips?

IMAGINE the view across Singapore, free of haze from distant forest fires, and think of the boost to people's health, the region's biodiversity and even the global climate. Today, an innovation at the crossroads of technology and finance is making that a little more likely, and it is us - millions of ordinary people - who can make it happen through something as simple as a smartphone.

Covid-19 is triggering this change - encouraging us to live more digital lives, including how we manage our money. One billion people now bank online. Micro-investing apps like Robinhood are booming. Private investor demand for financial data from my company, Refinitiv, has more than doubled since March. And wealth managers I speak to tell me their clients - particularly in Asia - want significantly more data on which to base investment decisions.

As we become more comfortable with digital and more people actively manage their own investments, something interesting is happening in the way we think about money: we are aligning our investments with our values. In China for example, 90 per cent of people surveyed by asset managers Schroders said they would not put their money into investments that conflict with their personal beliefs (in most Asian countries the figure is closer to 70 per cent).