"Asian financial institutions have the potential to become key levers of socio-economic change by encouraging responsible business practices through their cross-border financing and investment activities. However, the change needs to begin within their own institutions, evidenced by policy compliance towards internationally agreed ESG standards that clearly reflect their position on critical issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, gender equality, human rights, corruption, and others. Then, implementation progress and on-the-ground practices can be tracked and measured more effectively by stakeholders including the civil society particularly on whether they are supporting collective efforts to achieve commitments made towards the SDGs and the Paris Agreement".