The leadership position of Piraeus Bank in the business lending market linked to sustainability is strengthened by the new Sustainability-Linked Loans Framework adopted by the Bank, Thanos Vlachopoulos, head of corporate banking, said in the framework of the “Fitch Sustainability ESG Roundtable Athens 2024” organized by Fitch Ratings.
Piraeus has financed through Sustainability Linked Loans large and medium-sized enterprises, with a total amount exceeding 700 million euros, and has now proceeded to create an integrated framework that defines the financing process and describes the methodology for characterizing a business grant as “linked to sustainability.”
The greatest challenges
Regarding how difficult and demanding the process of defining the framework was, Vlachopoulos mentioned that the biggest difficulty and challenge for the working group was the process of choosing the appropriate ESG indicators and targets as well as the methodology to verify the achievement of these targets. He even noted that the collaboration with Sustainable Fitch to evaluate the reliability of the framework was constructive and effective and through it Piraeus Bank ensured that the framework follows the best practices of the market and has taken into account the principles described by international organizations.
Different degrees of maturity
When asked about the level of maturity of the Greek market in matters related to sustainability, Vlachopoulos stated that businesses are at a different level of maturity in terms of understanding and adopting ESG criteria in their operations. Differences are found not only between different industries and sizes but also between companies in the same industry.
He also emphasized that the Greek systemic banks have taken important initiatives and actions in relation to ESG, without always being imposed by the supervisory framework, while they have already taken an active role in educating and guiding their clients in order to adapt their long-term strategy towards a sustainable orientation.
