Last year saw Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) make further progress in sustainability, encouraged by a series of climate events—including flooding and record temperatures—that made the need for a rapid green transition more self-evident than ever. Governments (except the US,) local businesses, investors, and banks are now in broad agreement about the need to continue moving forward, leaving the energy-intensive past behind. The need to shift toward alternative energy sources has been reinforced by the move away from Russian gas and oil, which most countries see as a vital step toward securing long-term energy security.
Minds were further focused by a series of major conferences aimed at boosting sustainability across the region and highlighting the role of banks. These included the Annual Meeting last May, in Yerevan, Armenia, of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD aims to become a majority green lender this year. Its green projects include the Green Cities program and the Green Finance Academy, aimed at encouraging banks to scale up their green financing. Meanwhile, also last May, Prague hosted the annual CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, which will be repeated this year, focused on how to maximize opportunities under the European Commission’s European Green Deal, among other things. The region’s banks have led the way in boosting awareness of the need to transition toward a greener future and have devised a wide range of strategies and instruments to drive this forward.
OTP Bank
Best Bank for Sustainable Finance
Best Bank for Transition/Sustainability-Linked Loans
Hungary’s largest bank, active across CEE in 12 countries, has long been committed to green and sustainable projects. Over 2024, OTP Bank consolidated its position as a leader in these areas. The bank has a dedicated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) department that works closely with the bank’s branches across CEE—a unique network that ensures policy consistency and transparency in all the countries. OTP Group established its Sustainable Finance Framework (SFF) in 2022 to facilitate the issuance of bonds to finance and refinance projects that enable the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy or have a positive social impact and alleviate social problems.
In Q3 2024, green loan volume increased by 38% year-over-year to 649 billion forints (approximately $1.65 billion), while retail green loans increased by 17% year-over-year to 51 billion forints. Sustainalytics reports that since the 2022 green bond issuance under the SFF, “€1.26 billion have been allocated in the categories renewable energy, green buildings, and clean transportation, with projects located in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.”
OTP has set itself ambitious ESG financing targets that it looks to have pretty much achieved: For the full year 2024, the target was 1 trillion forints; and by the end of the third quarter, 873 billion forints had been attained. The target for 2025 is 1.5 trillion forints, 50% higher than in 2024, showing the extent of OTP’s ESG ambitions.
Akbank
Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year
Best Bank for Sustainable Infrastructure/Project Finance
Best Bank for Sustainable Financing in Emerging Markets
Best Bank for Social Bonds
Best Bank for Sustaining Communities
Last year was a key one for Akbank, a leading Turkish bank, winning no fewer than five of our coveted sustainability awards for the CEE region as well as one global award. Altogether the bank provided 126 billion Turkish lira (about $3.5 billion) in sustainable finance in the first nine months of 2024, based on bank-only management information system data, a sum that includes small and midsize enterprise (SME) loans (e.g., access to essential services, support for women-owned SMEs) and renewable loans, other green and social loans in line with its Sustainable Finance Framework, and ESG-type eurobond- and syndicated-loan purchases.
Akbank won our Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year with the issuance in June of a $500 million sustainability senior unsecured eurobond achieving a 7.5% yield and a total book size for the issuance of $1.5 billion. The ambitious deal bought the share of sustainability-focused funding in the bank’s portfolio to 66% of the total.
Following the devastating earthquake of February 2023, which has required billions for reconstruction, Akbank has honed its skills in financing infrastructure construction in a sustainable but effective way. Pockets of need across Turkey have enabled the bank to also become a leader in the issuance of social bonds to alleviate poverty and boost inclusion. In 2024, Akbank signed a major agreement with the EBRD called the Sustainable Supplier Financing Program, a risk-sharing model specifically developed for sustainability-focused supply chain finance.
IsBank
Best Impact Investing Solution
Building on its 2024 win for Best Bank for Sustainable Communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), IsBank continues its dedication to making an impact on sustainable economic transformation and has won this year’s Best Impact Investing Solution award for CEE.
In 2024, Turkey’s second-largest bank signed a syndicated loan deal for approximately $585 million, which will be used to fund environmental and social investments that align with IsBank’s Sustainable Finance Framework.
Sustainability-themed funding is an element of the financial institution’s strategic goals, noted Hakan Aran, CEO of IsBank, at the time of the loan’s announcement.
“We will continue to support sustainable transformation in the economy through this external funding,” he said. “With this $1.1 billion funding, we renewed the loan we obtained during the same period of the previous year by 124%.”
VUB Bank
Circular Economy Commitment Award
VUB Bank, as part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, has demonstrated a clear dedication to the circular economy. The Slovakian subsidiary has a Circular Economy Desk that provides expertise and support to businesses transitioning to circular models. This is part of a strategy aimed at integrating ESG into the bank’s wider operations. VUB offers various financial products and services, as well as partnerships, to support businesses in their circular economy ambitions. Offerings include loans, leasing, and other financing solutions. For individuals, the bank offers green mortgages and loans on reasonable terms for eco-friendly home improvements and electric vehicles.
VUB’s commitment to the circular economy reflects Intesa Sanpaolo’s goal of becoming a climate-neutral bank by 2030. To this end it has prioritized digitalization and a few years ago adopted the cloud-based Doxee Customer Communication Management platform to distribute the 60 million documents the bank sends to its customers each year, using a product that is flexible, reliable, and highly efficient.
Development and Investment Bank of Türkiye (DIBT)
Best Development Bank for Sustainable Finance
The Development and Investment Bank of Türkiye (DIBT) recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and operates across development banking, investment banking, and fund activities. Established in 1975, it has provided over $5.3 billion in financing through investments in industry, renewable energy, resource efficiency, and numerous other areas, working closely with other development banks and international institutions. The bank is at the center of Turkey’s ongoing efforts to boost green energy, reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, and improve long-term energy security. Therefore, it is active in providing financing for wind, solar, hydro, and other renewable energy projects.
At the end of 2024, DIBT received $100 million in investments from the International Finance Corporation to increase financial support for enterprises fostering women’s inclusion and to promote women’s economic participation, leadership, and access to services in Turkey.
Raiffeisen Bank International
Best Bank for Green Bonds
Best Bank for Sustainable Bonds
Best Bank for ESG-Related Loans
Best Bank for Sustainability Transparency
Issuance of green and sustainable bonds increased dramatically over 2024, with Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) easily surpassing its total ESG financing goal of €7 billion for the year, attaining some €16 billion by the end of the third quarter. Sustainable bond issuance reached €4.1 billion, with three RBI banks (in Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary) issuing ESG bonds worth €15 billion by the end of 2024.
RBI wins the award as Best Bank for Sustainable Transparency because of the extent to which environmental concerns are so deeply embedded in the group’s ethos: “Basic ESG rules are set in our Group Code of Conduct and RBI’s Group ESG and Sustainability Management Policy. Additionally, Sector Strategies are defining RBI’s transition path in the most polluting and CO2 emitting industries. According to our Climate and Environmental Business Strategy, we aim to create measurable impact following our commitments to the Science-Based Target Initiative, the Principles for Responsible Banking, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and of course regulatory requirements,” wrote the authors of RBI Sustainability Report 2023. In 2023, RBI established a climate and environmental business strategy with the clear goals of supporting customers’ funding for investments in the green transition process and reducing emissions financed by RBI. This strategy was also presented to the European Central Bank.
| Regional Winners: Central & Eastern Europe | |
|---|---|
| Best Bank for Sustainable Finance | OTP Bank |
| Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year | Akbank ($500M Sustainability Senior Unsecured Eurobond) |
| Best Impact Investing Solution | Isbank |
| Circular Economy Commitment Award | VUB Bank |
| Best Bank for Sustainable Infrastructure/Project Finance |
Akbank |
| Best Bank for Sustainable Financing in Emerging Markets |
Akbank |
| Best Development Bank for Sustainable Finance | Development and Investment Bank of Türkiye |
| Best Bank for Green Bonds | Raiffeisen Bank International |
| Best Bank for Social Bonds | Akbank |
| Best Bank for Sustainable Bonds | Raiffeisen Bank International |
| Best Bank for Sustaining Communities | Akbank |
| Best Bank for ESG-Related Loans | Raiffeisen Bank International |
| Best Bank for Sustainability Transparency | Raiffeisen Bank International |
| Best Bank for Transition/Sustainability-Linked Loans | OTP Bank |
