Awards for Excellence 2020
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In September 2019 Garanti BBVA signed the world’s first gender loan, a newly designed structure that the bank hopes will encourage its customers to improve their gender equality performance.
With the $44 million loan, the bank is financing Polat Energy’s construction of the wind farm Soma 4 – the largest wind farm in Turkey. Interest rates on the loan will become more favourable as Polat Energy meets criteria such as postnatal return-to-work programmes, equality in new recruitment, prioritizing enterprises with female-dominated partnerships in the supply chain, equal pay, policies to prevent harassment and training to address discrimination against women.
It is another innovative structure in the world of sustainable finance that Garanti BBVA has led out of Turkey. The bank wins the award for CEE’s best bank in sustainable finance.
Garanti BBVA’s commitment to sustainability begins internally. At the beginning of 2020, the bank signed a contract with utilities across Turkey to purchase 100% renewable energy for its buildings and branches that have the compatible infrastructure.
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Ebru Dildar Edin |
In terms of gender balance, women represent 56% of all employees and 40% of middle and senior roles.
The bank’s offerings span the spectrum from retail to corporate. Garanti BBVA Pension, for example, offers a sustainable stock pension investment fund for its customers. It finances green mortgages and has an environment-friendly auto loan programme.
For SMEs and entrepreneurs, the bank has provided financing support worth $133 million for energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects. Much of that has been distributed in south and southeastern Anatolia, where the majority of the refugee and asylum-seeker population lives. Some of the money was also used to support women entrepreneurs.
The fund was executed with the IFC, Development Bank of Austria and the Green for Growth Fund.
Last year, Garanti BBVA issued its first green bond in line with the International Capital Market Association’s green bond principles: a $50 million five-year deal in December. The proceeds will support renewable-energy and resource-efficiency projects that produce solutions for climate change.
Finally, Garanti BBVA plays a leading role in Turkey in guiding the development of sustainability. For example, it is the only founding member bank from Turkey in the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Principles for Responsible Banking core group and became a signatory of the principles in 2019.
And executive vice-president Ebru Dildar Edin is president of BCSD Turkey, a non-profit business association established to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future in Turkey.
