“I’ve done a lot of exams over the years and I've got an MBA, but I have not been as thrilled about passing an exam in a long time than I did after passing this one here,” he tells the latest edition of InFinance.
“As a FINSIA Fellow, I wanted to show to myself and the industry that even when you turn 50, you can still learn.
The depth of detail in the modules and the questions in the exam certainly test you have an understanding on the topic, which is great.
What’s important for me is that this is not a course I was put on by my work. I did this for myself as I wanted to upskill in this emerging area.
It was self-funded, and I’m delighted I passed.”
Soren, who works in ANZ’s Institutional Australia & PNG Business Execution team, supports the broader ESG agenda across the business, and sees sustainable finance as “still very new and evolving”.
“The latest area is probably biodiversity, which is new for us all. We’re evolving our customer conversations so that we can make meaningful contributions to our customers’ strategies and approaches in minimising biodiversity decline.
As finance professionals, we need to be able to have conversations with our customers about how we can support their journey to net zero.”
Soren said studying the course has served as a “lightbulb moment” around how important green and sustainable finance, and the broader transition agenda, is.
“The beauty of the course was that it gave context to the broader topic. It gives you the big picture supplemented by global examples.”
On his top take-outs from the course, he says: “I’ve grown my appreciation for the risks that finance professionals must appropriately understand, including greenwashing and stranded assets.
As a banker and a finance professional, understanding these concepts is fundamental. When making decisions we need to take them into consideration because it influences the longer-term view.”
