The FINANCIAL — The EBRD’s Green TFP has won an award for “innovative product” from the leading business and finance magazine Global Finance.
Following a vote by the editorial board, the publication included Green TFP on its prestigious list “The Innovators 2017 – Trade Finance”. The full list of winners who were chosen worldwide will be published in Global Finance’s 30th anniversary issue in June 2017, which will focus on innovation in the financial industry.
The EBRD’s Green TFP allows partner banks under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) to use their existing TFP facilities for the financing of exports, imports and local distribution of imported green technologies and services in line with the Bank’s Green Economy Transition (GET) approach.
In its first year, Green TFP supported 220 foreign trade transactions in GET technologies and services with a total volume of €198 million across 14 EBRD countries of operations. This resulted in annual energy savings of 339,750 MWh (the equivalent of double the yearly district heating demand of the city of Pristina in Kosovo), water savings of 26,300m3 (the equivalent of the yearly water supply for 550 people in Ukraine) and emission reductions of 181,600 tCO2 (the equivalent of the effect from removing more than 50,000 cars from the streets in Europe).
Green TFP transactions to date include: the import of wind power turbines to Ukraine from Germany; the import of hydroelectric power plant equipment to Georgia from France; and the import of greenhouse equipment to Armenia from France. Another example is the support of resource efficiency with the import of water-saving taps to Serbia from Slovenia. The average transaction size of €900,000 demonstrates that the concept supports primarily smaller projects, according to EBRD.
Rudolf Putz, EBRD Head of TFP, said: “This award is a huge recognition not only for us but also for our partner banks, and we are delighted. We would like to share this award with issuing and confirming banks all over the world that have used our facilities in 2016 for financing 220 Green TFP transactions. It is an important innovative step for trade finance and it strengthens the EBRD’s efforts to make the countries where we invest greener with our activities.”
“Green TFP was developed by a dedicated project team of energy efficiency and climate change managers and trade finance bankers,” added Terry McCallion, EBRD Director, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change. “Linking knowledge and expertise across the institution and fostering cooperation across teams has allowed us to develop a distinct comparative advantage. Broadening the scope of our GET approach to trade finance has paved the way for a wider environmental impact of our operations.”
Green TFP is implemented with the help of engineers, bank relationship managers, trade finance experts and marketing specialists, with funds provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance.
Global Finance, founded in 1987, has a circulation of 50,000 readers in 192 countries. The magazine’s audience includes chairmen, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, treasurers and other senior financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions.
The EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), launched in 1999, aims to promote foreign trade to, from and among the countries in which the EBRD invests. Through the programme, the EBRD provides guarantees to international confirming banks and short-term loans to selected banks and factoring companies for on-lending to local exporters, importers and distributors. The EBRD’s TFP currently includes 96 partner banks in 26 countries where the EBRD invests, with limits exceeding €1.5 billion in total and more than 800 confirming banks worldwide.
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