OAO Belagroprombank is planning to attract the loan of the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) to sponsor environmental projects. The relevant agreement was signed by the bank and NEFCO on September 28, in Minsk.
The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) is an International Financial Institution established by the Nordic Governments in 1990. NEFCO provides results-based green financing. NEFCO was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to support the Nordic countries’ efforts to increase environmental awareness in Eastern and Central Europe by providing financing to projects that reduced emissions harmful to the environment. The reasoning was that it made more sense – financially speaking – to support new investments in line with the environmental priorities of the Nordic countries in Eastern Europe – adjacent to the Baltic Sea – compared with the rising marginal cost of introducing increasingly stringent requirements at home.
OAO Belagroprombank was registered in 1991 and is now the country’s second largest core bank. The state owns an 85.3% stake in the bank’s charter capital. Belagroprombank accounts for one fourth of Belarusian banks’ resources and over one third of the lending to the real economy.
The bank’s regulatory capital stood at Br11.16 trillion as of June 1, 2015 ($556.9 million).
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on July 27, 2015 affirmed Belagroprombank’s counterparty credit rating at ‘B-/C’, outlook stable. (Prime-TASS/Business World Magazine)
