이 기사는 2021년 11월 03일 07:52 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Korea Development Bank (KDB) has issued a request for proposals seeking a firm to assess integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions by its general partners, according to industry sources on Monday.

The move comes after the state-controlled lender hired the Korea Corporate Governance Service in September to develop and finalize a model and manual to assess ESG integration of investment firms.

The selected firm will be responsible for scoring ESG integration of the bank’s 56 general partners based on the manual, which will include questionnaires and on-site due diligence, and submitting a report to KDB on how to improve the model.

“This is part of efforts to monitor our investments in (private equity) funds and boost ESG investing in the country,” KDB said.

The lender will make a final selection in the middle of this month and complete the assessment by the mid-January 2022, although the timeline is flexible.

Given that KDB is one of major limited partners in South Korea, other domestic institutions could follow suit in emphasizing ESG factors, industry watchers said.

Apart from KDB, several other limited partners already included ESG factors in their selection criteria when awarding private equity mandates this year. For example, Korean Teachers' Credit Union and Teachers’ Pension asked asset managers to disclose their ESG policies and practices during the selection process.

The move by KDB means that limited partners’ request to integrate ESG factors into investment decisions has expanded to include post-investment management, and therefore more investment firms in the country will need to prepare for ESG investment, industry watchers said. (Reporting by Hee-yeon Han)