Sustainable Financing: BB sets minimum disbursement target

Banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) will have to disburse at least 15 per cent of their outstanding loans in the form of sustainable financing every year in order to promote the environment-friendly businesses.

Of the 15 per cent, 2 percentage points must be in the form of green financing, according to a Bangladesh Bank notice.

Under the sustainable financing, lenders distribute loans to set up machinery that enable lower carbon emission compared to traditional ones.

Such types of machinery also help reduce environment pollution in many other aspects.

But green financing means loans disbursed to dedicatedly set up plants having a direct link in reducing environment pollution.

For instance, lenders' investments in solar plants or effluent treatment plants are considered green financing.

From another viewpoint, banks and the NBFIs will have to disburse at least 5 per cent of their previous year's outstanding term loans, meaning those having a repayment tenure of more than one year, in the form of sustainable financing.

The calculations must be such that 20 per cent of loans they disburse every year are in the form of sustainable financing, including green ones.

The achievements of loan disbursement targets under the sustainable financing policy will be taken into consideration when the central bank prepares the CAMELS rating for banks and the NBFIs.

The CAMELS is a internationally recognised rating system that bank supervisory authorities use to rate financial institutions according to six factors represented by its acronym.

The CAMELS acronym stands for "Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, and Sensitivity".

Supervisory authorities assign each bank a score on a scale. A rating of one is considered the best and a rating of five the worst for each factor.  

The achievement of banks and NBFIs in the arena of sustainable financing will also help manage a good score from the sustainability rating of banks and the NBFIs prepared by the central bank.

The latest measure taken by the central bank will promote the country's green economy as a whole, said Khondkar Morshed Millat, a general manager of the central bank.