Bank Alfalah, IFC sign deal

KARACHI: Bank Alfalah held a formal signing ceremony with International Finance Corporation (IFC) to formalise commencement of diagnostic assessment on Green Business Facilitation, a statement said on Wednesday.

In October 2017, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced its green banking guidelines for banks to study and implement, it added.

One pillar of the SBP’s green banking guidelines is ‘Green Business Facilitation’. It entails allocation of funding resources to those businesses, which directly or indirectly want to reduce their carbon foot-print, be more resource efficient and use other means to reduce their environmental impact, it said.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) will assess the current state of readiness for Bank Alfalah to embark on a sustainable green banking business, the statement said.

In this project, IFC and Bank Alfalah will carry out a diagnostic exercise jointly on the existing portfolio to identify potential sectors where the bank may introduce green financing solutions to its clients.