Market Forces has lodged a complaint at the Singapore Exchange against Singapore bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation – OCBC, for potential misleading conduct over finance enabling industrial coal power plants by Harita Nickel Group in Indonesia.

The complaint outlines that OCBC’s public disclosures may be materially misleading to investors and the market, thereby risking a breach of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) rules regarding disclosure and sustainability reporting.

Binbin Mariana, Asia Energy Finance Campaigner said:
“OCBC’s funding of Harita’s entities whose operations rely on industrial coal plants powering a nickel smelter on Obi Island Indonesia, exposes a loophole enabling financing of fossil fuels harmful to the climate and a safe future.”

“The Singapore Exchange needs to consider launching an investigation into whether OCBC may be misleading investors and failing its compliance with the SGX Rulebooks.”

The complaint outlines that OCBC has committed to excluding project financing for new coal power plants under its Responsible Financing Framework. For corporate financing, the bank’s framework applies thresholds under which coal power capacity or revenue must not exceed 25% for new clients and 50% for existing clients.

OCBC’s disclosures have not provided complete information for investors regarding the true extent of the bank’s exposure to companies reliant on industrial coal power plants and the full extent of the climate-related transition risk posed by this exposure.

Harita currently operates 910 MW of coal power generation capacity and plans to nearly double its fossil output to 1,670 MW for its nickel operations on Obi Island, according to the company’s disclosures. Harita is only operating 40 MW of solar power capacity.

The complaint highlights that Harita’s carbon emissions nearly tripled, from 3.74 megatonnes of carbon emissions (MtCO₂e) in 2022 to 10.87 MtCO₂e in 2024, equivalent to driving 2.5 million fossil fuel powered cars for one year.

“Investors need the full picture as they rely on climate and coal phase-out commitments disclosed by banks to assess growing climate-related risk,” said Ms Mariana.

“There must be greater transparency from all banks on how financing any companies whose operations rely on coal power plants is aligned with their own policies, global climate goals and the critical transition to clean, reliable and affordable energy.”

Note to editors:
OCBC is a corporation listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and is subject to the SGX Rulebooks. Compliance is enforced by SGX RegCo, which has a wide range of enforcement powers, including issuing public reprimands and requiring issuers to comply.

OCBC is required to comply with the following SGX Mainboard Rules:
– Rule 703(1) – Disclosure of material information: Requires an issuer to announce information necessary to avoid the establishment of a “false market” in its securities.
– Rules 711A & 711B – Sustainability Report: Require issuers to prepare a sustainability report, which, pursuant to SGX’s Sustainability Reporting Guide and Practice Notes, should comprise climate-related disclosures in accordance with IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standard. The SGX framework recognises that the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards build on recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
– Practice Note 7.6 to Rule 711B clarifies that sustainability reporting disclosure does not detract from an issuer’s obligation under Listing Rule 703(1) to disclose information necessary to avoid the establishment of a false market, bringing material sustainability and climate-related disclosures within the scope of SGX’s continuous disclosure regime.