Japan Bank for International Cooperation approved a $50-million green facility for BDO Unibank Inc. for relending to environment-related undertakings focusing mainly on renewable energy in the Philippines.
The agreement, a first for JBIC with a Philippine private commercial bank, was formally sealed Wednesday. Signing the agreement were JBIC managing executive officer and global head of infrastructure and environment finance group Hideo Naito, BDO head for institutional banking Walter Wassmer and BDO head for investor relations and corporate planning Luis Reyes Jr.
The green facility intends to bankroll under the global action for reconciling economic growth and environmental preservation environment-related projects, which contribute to lessening greenhouse gas emissions.
It is also seen to promote the Philippine government’s environmental policy while disseminating advanced Japanese environmental technologies, which have been highly recognized globally. The government has been taking vigorous steps to implement measures to cope with climate change, including the goal of reducing GHG emissions by 70 percent by 2030.
JBIC and BDO have been building mutual partnerships in recent years. In March 2013, the parties signed a memorandum of understanding for the development and strengthening of frameworks to support business expansions into the Philippines by Japanese mid-tier enterprises and SMEs via the Japanese regional financial institutions.
JBIC, a policy-based financial institution wholly-owned by the Japanese government, conducts lending, investment and guarantee operations while complementing the private sector financial institutions.
BDO is a full-service universal bank which provides a wide range of corporate, commercial and retail banking services. These services include traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust banking, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards and credit card services.
It is ranked as the largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management based on published statements of condition as of March 31, 2016.
