TITLE: South Korea's Financial Services Commission Advances Climate Finance Information Infrastructure
BODY:
On February 25, 2026, South Korea's Financial Services Commission released a comprehensive plan to enhance climate finance information infrastructure through the development of data-driven intelligent financial systems.
The initiative addresses key market challenges including unfamiliar classification standards for identifying climate finance-eligible companies, difficulties in assessing alignment with Korea's taxonomy framework, and concerns about greenwashing. The commission is establishing a unified climate finance web portal to support financial institutions in activating climate finance across corporate, financial institution, and policy dimensions.
The rollout occurs in phases. In April 2026, the climate finance web portal will launch its first-stage service, enabling data input, alignment assessment logic, and output generation. In August 2026, the second-stage formal service will open, incorporating data collection, analysis, recommendation logic, and alignment determination connectivity.
Additionally, the commission is constructing a standardized financial emissions platform aligned with international standards to support financial institutions' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures and carbon neutrality commitments. The platform will utilise Korea Credit Information Services' infrastructure and calculate financial emissions across asset classes, including Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The platform will serve approximately 50 financial institutions across 10 financial holding companies, including Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, and Hana Financial Group.
The financial emissions platform will standardise emissions calculations, reduce individual institution costs, enable cross-institution comparisons, and support policy development. The commission plans to expand user institutions and extend services across all asset classes by the second half of 2026, following distribution of standardisation manuals in February 2026 and supervisory regulation amendments.