Awards for Excellence 2019
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When it comes to supporting the transition to a low carbon future across the Middle East, one bank is leading the way – HSBC, which wins the award this year for the Middle East’s best bank for sustainable finance.
It was the mandated lead arranger, for example, on the $2bn green rotating credit facility of UAE’s port operator, DP World. It has also been a lender on important environmental deals such as Urbaser’s contract with Be’ah, an Omani waste company, to develop sustainable waste water treatment and recycling plants.
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Sabrin Rahman |
“We want to help sustainable finance develop holistically across all sectors the region in addition to supporting our colleagues on this journey,” says Sabrin Rahman, regional head of sustainability, and that commitment is clear.
HSBC Middle East’s senior managers are all trained in sustainable finance, as are its relationship managers across global banking, commercial banking and retail banking in the region.
HSBC owns a 40% stake in Saudi British Bank (SABB) and has also been active in training and supporting SABB in both sustainable finance and financial inclusion.
It is hard to find a sustainable finance working group or policy development that HSBC is not engaged in. More recently, in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, HSBC is advising and helping to develop frameworks for sustainable investment and finance. In December last year, it hosted 30 representatives of the finance community in Dubai to discuss innovations.
With regards to investments and opportunities for clients, HSBC made two of its lower carbon funds available to Middle Eastern clients, and products related to new green electricity-related technologies.
In September 2018 it launched its C3 Accelerator Program, which invites entrepreneurs having positive social impacts across the region to pitch, then providing them with training and exposure to impact investors. The bank also has several SME-focused financing programmes.
