February 27, 2018 — Hà Nội, Việt Nam has made significant progress in banking reforms to expand sustainable lending, says the first comprehensive Global Progress Report of the Sustainable Banking Network (SBN), released on Monday.
SBN’s 34 member-countries, with US$42.6 trillion in bank assets accounting for over 85 per cent of total bank assets in emerging markets, have initiated sustainable finance reforms at different stages, from commitment to reforms to changing domestic banks’ lending practices.
Việt Nam, together with seven other countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Nigeria – have reached an advanced stage where large-scale reforms have been implemented and systems have been put in place to measure results.
These reforms require banks to assess and report on environmental and social (E&S) risks in their lending operations and put market incentives in place for banks to lend to green projects.
“This progress is an important step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” said Ethiopis Tafara, International Finance Corporation’s Vice President for Legal, Compliance Risk and Sustainability. Read more.