The winner of the TCFD report of the year in 2024 is Cathay Financial Holdings (Cathay FHC), Taiwan's largest financial institution by assets and includes subsidiaries Cathay Life, Cathay United Bank, Cathay Century Insurance, Cathay Securities and Cathay Securities Investment Trust.

It signed up to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and became a supporter in 2018. Its 2022 TCFD report, published in June 2023, focused on three key areas: to develop a clear climate strategy roadmap with short-, medium- and long-term goals; to introduce international tools to identify natural risk issues and cover climate scenario analysis for the entire value chain; and, to follow the TCFD disclosure framework and voluntarily pilot the introduction of the IFRS S2 climate-related disclosures framework.

Cathay FHC's climate strategy has been divided into two key areas: "low carbon economy" and "environmental sustainability". "Low carbon economy" focuses on its climate actions in investment and lending as well as products and services, while "environmental sustainability" focuses on the group's zero-carbon transformation.

In addition, Cathay FHC has also joined the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) and has had its carbon targets passed by the Science-Based Carbon Targets initiative (SBTi).

Judges considered the report as highly comprehensive, with a level of detail that made it stand out above other entries this year. One judge remarked, "one of the most thorough examples of a TCFD report that I have seen".

"As the largest financial group in Taiwan, Cathay FHC's customers represent over half of Taiwan's population. Cathay FHC is committed to achieving net-zero emissions from its own operations and financial assets and reaching 100% renewable energy consumption for all global operations by 2050. It supports low-carbon transition finance, and services to enable value chain decarbonisation," Cathay FHC stated.

"As the founding member of the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), Cathay FHC leverages its fellow institutional investors to collaborate with different sectors to take on further commitments to net-zero business models. In 2022, Cathay FHC was selected as an example of the corporate TCFD Status Report, the first financial institution in Taiwan to be included."