FAST-Infra Platform FAQ
1. What is the aim of FAST-Infra?
FAST-Infra — the ‘Finance to Accelerate the Sustainable Transition-Infrastructure’ initiative — aims to close the
trillion-dollar sustainable infrastructure investment gap, with urgency, by transforming sustainable infrastructure
into a mainstream, liquid asset class. FAST-Infra has brought together nearly 80 institutions (governments, banks,
institutional investors, multilaterals, financial technology companies and infrastructure-focused NGOs). Since May
2020, they have been working to identify initiatives that could transform the financing landscape for sustainable
infrastructure.
Members have identified three transformational initiatives:
i. System to label sustainable infrastructure assets
ii. Technology platform to enable the digital transformation of infrastructure finance
iii. Innovative financial mechanisms for guarantees and co-financing with multilaterals
2. What is the FAST-Infra technology enabled platform?
Project development and project finance remain an artisanal process. There is little standardization and each
project is developed more or less from scratch. It takes years to develop projects, and most viable projects never
reach financial close. Over 50% of projects that are developed get renegotiated.
There is little use of modern technology. Public sponsors, developers, lenders, investors and others involved in
preparing and structuring projects lack useful data, and appropriate technology to use it.
The FAST-Infra Technology Platform seeks to address this massive gap. It is bringing together some of the world’s
best technology companies and experts in project finance to create a platform that can enable better, fairer and
faster project development, transparent project financing, and efficient risk management. The platform will
support the development of well-prepared projects, investor matching and eventually seek to facilitate
securitization of infrastructure loans.
With the FAST-Infra Technology Platform, we seek to help market participants:
• Develop well-prepared projects
• Reduce the time it takes to develop projects by 50%
• Help make procurement simpler and more transparent, and help improve the terms on which governments
procure the quality infrastructure they need
• Simplify due diligence and project finance
• Improve operation, monitoring and risk management
• Enable infrastructure to become a transparent and liquid asset class
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3. Who are the participants involved in developing FAST-Infra technology enabled platform concept?
Current participants and those providing guidance include IBM, SIF-SOURCE, Scale, EPPF, Infraclear, Liquidnet,
Refinitiv, Hitachi, Standard Chartered and HSBC.
4. What has been the progress so far?
Today the participants are working in a collaborative manner and have developed a clickable prototype to
demonstrate the sustainable finance ecosystem for interested parties and encourage further participation.
5. What are the plans to advance FAST-Infra technology enabled platform concept to the next stage?
Stages for 2022 will encompass definition of a suitable legal vehicle to engage public private participants in a
consortium and steer the design and development of platform through to its launch.
6. HSBC announced a new partnership with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings to finance sustainable
infrastructure, initially focusing on Southeast Asia in Sept 2021. How is this platform different from
FAST-Infra technology enabled platform?
The partnership with Temasek is a fund set-up and aims to channel capital into sustainable infrastructure projects.
FAST-Infra Technology platform will facilitate the publication of the development projects seeking finance, attract
investors and assist the completion of deals, plus ongoing reporting during the lifetime of these loans.
7. I am interested in joining FAST-Infra technology platform initiative, whom should I contact for more
details?
FAST Infra invites other institutions who are interested to register their interest via [CPI FAST Infra Platform email
address to be supplied]. A member of the team will contact you to share information and ways you may wish to
become engaged, without any obligation to commit.
8. “Who would be the users/beneficiaries of the platform?
Users are expected to include institutions involved in the project cycle, including governments, developers, asset
owners, lenders, investors, insurers and advisors.
The public will benefit from getting climate-friendly infrastructure in the ground more quickly, from better
allocation of capital and more efficient and accessible infrastructure.
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