Vietnam

State Bank of Vietnam promotes ESG measures

The State Bank of Vietnam has released its ‘Directive on Promoting Green Credit Growth and Environmental and Social Risks Management in Credit Granting Activities’ to promote a green economy.

The directive encourages all credit institutions to incorporate environmental and social risks into their transactions, and includes a a reporting template that requires credit institutions to quarterly report quantitative data to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), according to a statement by Green Finance Platform.

Vietnam began to promote sustainable banking in 2015. However, according to Green Finance Platform, Vietnam's banking sector is still emerging and the country could further promote its sustainable finance agenda by developing more practical guidance and encouraging local banks to learn from international good practices.

The SBV have been credited as actively developing many initiatives to support green finance flows, including financial incentives, a catalogue of green assets or products, and green credit reporting guidelines.