LSP advises German Savings Banks on ESG certification for SME financing

LSP advises the German Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen Finanzgruppe) together with Bain & Company in a long-term project to develop an assessment matrix for savings banks in order to grant ESG-certified SME loans (so-called transformation financing).

The goal of this project is to develop a lending matrix (including CP and covenant guidelines) which is aligned with, in a first step, the EU taxonomy environmental goal “climate protection” for lending to SMEs in Germany.

As a result, the participating savings banks (Sparkassen) will have the opportunity to receive “green loan” certificates by ESG rating provider ISS if the requirements of the newly developed lending matrix are satisfied.