Recently, Saigon – Hanoi Bank (SHB) was honored by the Vietnam Energy Association (VEA) as an effective investment arrangement bank for energy projects in Vietnam in the 2017-2021 period. The award is recognition for SHB’s relentless efforts in the journey of “greening” capital flows, supporting businesses, and contributing to the country’s sustainable development.

Accompanying “green projects” in Vietnam

Green credit growth is an important part of SHB’s overall strategy for sustainable development. Green growth action plan is implemented synchronously by the Bank according to a specific roadmap, from raising awareness among staff, partners, customers about the importance of green credit growth; reforming regulations, processes, mechanisms to “tailoring” credit products and banking services for green sectors. In the mean time, SHB has also gradually transformed its credit structure towards giving priority to customers engaged in production and business activities in green fields.

Since 2014, SHB has participated in disbursing nearly VND 1,000 billion in REDP projects funded by the WB through green energy projects. Accompanying Vietnam’s Renewable Energy Development Strategy to 2030 with the goal of achieving a ratio of electricity produced from renewable energy sources above 10% by 2030, SHB has been actively pouring capital into clean energy/renewable energy projects such as: The Project of “Smart Grid – Efficiency in Power Transmission” (phase 1) worth EUR 65 million and the Project of “Effective grid in small and medium-sized cities” (phases 1 and 2) worth EUR 350 million funded by the German Government through the German Bank for Reconstruction (KfW).

Deputy General Director Ninh Thi Lan Phuong on behalf of SHB received the award “Top 10 banks in effectively arranging investment capital for energy projects in Vietnam from 2017 to 2022″

In December 2021, SHB was selected by the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the World Bank as the Risk Sharing Fund Manager for the project in Vietnam with a total fund of USD 75 million. The risk sharing model of the RSF Fund managed by SHB is a very new model in the world and was implemented in Vietnam for the first time. In the context of limited public captial sources for energy, the risk-sharing fund is an innovative financial tool to mobilize capital from the private sector for investment in order to increase the adoption of energy saving solutions in industrial production.

Thanks to synchronous development strategies, the proportion of green credit outstanding at SHB accounts for nearly 10% of the total outstanding loans and tends to grow faster and more effectively, contributing to sustainable growth and environmental protection. From 2018 to now, SHB’s funding balance for green projects has grown by nearly 150%, much higher than the growth rate of total credit balance of 70%.

With its contributions to green credit activities, previously, SHB has been recognized by many prestigious international organizations with important awards such as “Outstanding Green Bank” awarded by IDG; “Bank for CSR – Green Bank” honored by The Asian Banking and Finance (ABF) Magazine, etc.

Focusing on safe and sustainable control

Up to now, SHB is one of the private joint stock commercial banks with outstanding loans for large green projects in the banking system. The Bank has always proactively approached green capital sources from international financial institutions (WB, ADB, KfW, JICA…), in order to finance infrastructure construction projects in Vietnam, especially investment projects in waste treatment, smart agricultural production, renewable energy; energy saving; green construction projects…

Always focusing on safety and sustainability control, projects selected for funding by SHB should meet strict conditions according to international and domestic standards in terms of environmental protection, energy and resource saving. SHB applies a set of tools to assess environmental and social risks with strict criteria issued by the State Bank and IFC in the appraisal of investors. On the Bank’s side, SHB is moving to integrate assessment and selection of eligible projects for green credit into business and risk management programs.

The award is recognition for SHB’s restless efforts in the journey of “greening” capital flows, supporting businesses, and contributing to the country’s sustainable development.

Not only supporting capital, SHB also accompanies and supports customers to raise awareness on green economic activities, provide technical safety consultancy, training and capacity building for green project investors, contributing to helping customers meet the requirements and strict standards of safety and environmental friendliness, and criteria on sustainable development of international organizations. This will help rural businesses and households expand their business activities, promote the development of agricultural industries, renewable energy, and energy efficiency in Vietnam.

“ SHB always tailors products suitable for each partner, besides, the Bank also promotes sharing knowledge for businesses to improve production efficiency in a cleaner and more sustainable direction. This not only raises business awareness, but also ensures the circular economy, maintains supply chain stability, and creates jobs for people .” – Ms. Ngo Thu Ha – CEO of SHB shared.

Being a partner of many large international organizations with cooperation value of up to hundreds of millions of USD not only affirms the prestige and capacity of the SHB brand in the international financial market, but also the credibility of the SHB brand, a bank that always develops safely, strongly, operates transparently, fully meeting international criteria and standards. Recently, IFC – an organization of the World Bank group (World Bank) and SHB also actively implemented a credit and trade finance package expected to reach hundreds of millions of USD. The credit package is expected to support the growth of SHB’s SME loan portfolio, including enterprises participating in the supply chain of clean agricultural products, green projects, etc.

With a safe and sustainable development strategy, SHB has been striving to maintain the Top 1 position among the private joint stock commercial banks in green credit, actively supporting businesses in all aspects, contributing to the sustainable development of the country.