Garanti leads the UN Principles for Responsible Banking in Turkey
Under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), Garanti joined 27 other global banks at the presentation of the Principles for Responsible Banking in Paris. BBVA owns a 49.85% stake of Garanti - the only Turkish bank participating in this global initiative.
The Principles for Responsible Banking are a UN Environmental Program initiative to establish a road map to sustainability. The Principles aim to maximize the impact of banks in order to build a sustainable and equitable future for society.
For Garanti CEO Fuat Erbil, “The Principles of Responsible Banking will serve as a guide to advance in different projects, and will give us the opportunity to be transparent about the steps we take to build a better world.”
BBVA and Garanti are two banks that are aware of the challenge posed by climate change and environmental conservation. That’s why they decided to join other banks from around the world in a common project to build a sustainable future. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, the Principles for Responsible Banking were born.
The Principles for Responsible Banking are based on six premises: commitment, impact, clients and customers, stakeholders, governance and target setting, and transparency and accountability. They also provide banks a comprehensive framework that will help them to make sustainability part of their DNA across their business and in all areas of activity, with social objectives, strategies, portfolios and transactions.
In preparation for these principles, the participating banks worked in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations, banking associations, regulators and UN agencies. Following the launch in Paris, the Principles for Responsible Banking will be signed by the founding banks in September 2019.
Garanti played a leading role in Turkey’s first green loan in July 2018, an operation aimed at providing financing to Zorlu Energy that will increase the flexibility of certain conditions of the loan based on the customer’s performance measured based on a series of sustainability, environmental, and social indicators. Also, Garanti, together with the International Finance Corporation (a subsidiary of the World Bank Group) has been the first Turkish bank to issue a social bond aimed at funding projects by female entrepreneurs.
Garanti has committed to continue exploring new financing alternatives for innovative products and supporting sustainable projects that help materialize the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
