Dive Brief:

• HSBC has hired Chaoni Huang, formerly a sustainability executive at French bank BNP Paribas, to lead its sustainable finance and transition business in Asia, the British lender announced Monday in a LinkedIn post.
• Huang will serve as the managing director and head of HSBC’s sustainability-focused business in the region and help its clients “decarbonize and invest in new growth,” the bank said in a LinkedIn post.
• Huang was most recently a managing director and head of sustainable capital markets for the Asia-Pacific region at BNP Paribas’ global markets division. She was promoted to that role almost four years ago after serving as the sector’s executive director. Huang joined the French bank in 2019.

Dive Insight:

Huang has around 20 years of experience in the sustainability space, which includes roles at financial services providers Natixis and MSCI, as well as S&P Global’s environmental data and risk analysis subsidiary Trucost and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, according to her LinkedIn page.

“Asia plays a crucial role in supporting and shaping global transition ecosystems, and Chaoni will be responsible for continuing to bring the best of HSBC’s capabilities to support credible transition and sustainable finance,” HSBC said in its Monday post.

Huang said in a separate post she would seek to build on the bank’s sustainability strategy and provide her expertise to clients at a time when “sustainability and climate challenges continue to face significant funding gaps.”

“I will focus on driving HSBC’s strategy to support clients as they seek to decarbonize, scaling of critical transition ecosystem in the region, catalyzing emerging climate tech to industries, and ultimately making a long lasting impact with our partners,” the Hong Kong-based executive added.

HSBC’s latest appointment comes after it unveiled an updated net-zero transition strategy in November, which included watered-down, sector-specific 2030 targets for energy-intensive sectors including the oil and gas, power and utilities, automotive and aviation industries.

The London-based bank said in its revised plan that it was introducing a range of goals for those sectors, in line with updated International Energy Agency projections based on the world’s net-zero trajectory. HSBC also pared back financed emissions goals for the oil and gas sector and changed the methodology being used to measure the carbon footprint of its power and utilities portfolio.

In 2025, the bank also delayed its net-zero goal, appointed a new chief sustainability officer and departed the United Nations-aligned Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a climate group which has since ceased its membership-based model.