An early sustainability adopter in Vietnam, Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank, or SHB, continues to develop its green-growth action plan, which increasingly guides decisions across different divisions.
A recent move by SHB, led by chief executive Ngo Thu Ha, to partner with the World Bank to promote energy savings is part of the overall strategy to raise the bank’s commitment to developing green credit products and banking services.
SHB also collaborates with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and Vietnam’s top monetary authority, the State Bank, in adding specific clauses to loan contracts. These spell out a customer's responsibility to improve environmental and social risk management and to devise action plans and timelines to minimize risks before and after loan disbursement.
The bank has also supported project owners by providing technical safety advice on regulations, technical assistance on carbon finance programmes, training curricula and loan guarantees. SHB’s environmental, social and governance risk-management tools have helped to improve the feasibility of funding for green sectors and sustainable development.
But it is SHB’s focus on innovation that makes it Asiamoney’s best bank for ESG in Vietnam this year. An example is its financing package for solar projects.