The sustainable-finance market slowed in 2025, but stricter standards, improved disclosures, and major deals kept issuance strong across banks.
Western Europe’s sustainable-finance market faced a challenging 2025 as tighter rules and a more cautious macro environment made issuers and investors more selective.
Companies began publishing their first sustainability statements under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, raising demand for auditable data. At the same time, shifting US climate policy added uncertainty to the broader market, weighing on investor sentiment.
Even so, activity remained substantial, and standards advanced. According to SEB Bank data, European issuance of green, sustainable, sustainability-linked, and transition bonds totaled nearly $464 billion in 2025, a slight 2.5% drop from 2024. In green bonds, the London Stock Exchange Group estimates a total volume of $256 billion in new issuances for the region in 2025, down 5% YoY.
Against this backdrop, 2025 rewarded banks for credibility: clearer frameworks, stronger key performance indicator (KPI) discipline, and documentation that can withstand scrutiny—turning better disclosure into fundable transition and infrastructure pipelines.
Best Bank for Sustainable Finance
Societe Generale
Across Western Europe, Societe Generale advanced its sustainable-finance efforts in 2025 by pairing execution with tighter standards and transparency.
Among the French behemoth’s landmark accomplishments in the region in 2025, Societe Generale signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank designed to stimulate up to €8 billion of wind investment across Europe.
In France, the bank arranged a €425 million sustainability-linked loan for Ocea Smart Building and a €283 million green loan facility for Electra to accelerate EV charging buildout.
Societe Generale also structured a landmark sustainability-linked loan to refinance Swiatłowod Inwestycje’s fiber expansion, targeting an additional 700,000 households by 2032 with KPIs on circular economy, digital inclusion, and ESG scoring. To further scale impact investing, Societe Generale provided a €108 million revolving facility to the Octobre Liquidity Guarantee Facility.
On the transparency front, the bank refreshed its Sustainable Financing Framework to align with the 2025 ICMA principles, with eligible green assets mapped to EU taxonomy substantial-contribution criteria, and annual allocation and impact reporting independently reviewed.
Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year (Verdalia Infrastructure Financing in the Biomethane Sector)
Best Bank for Green Bonds
BBVA
Helping corporates navigate Europe’s increasingly complex regulatory framework with best-in-class execution, Spanish giant BBVA continued to push the envelope of sustainability in 2025.
During the year, the bank actively participated in several of the region’s most closely watched green-bond issuances, including Italian utility A2A’s €500 million 10-year EU Green Bond in January 2025, a landmark deal aligned with the rollout of the EU Green Bond Framework.
Later in the year, BBVA supported Volkswagen’s €500 million 10-year green bond in August 2025, helping finance clean transport projects and drawing peak investor demand of more than €3.1 billion.
But the defining moment of BBVA’s year in sustainability came outside of green bonds, with the closing of Verdalia Bioenergy’s €671 million financing package in October 2025, a record-setting biomethane financing that earned the bank our Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year in Western Europe.
Verdalia will use the financing to build, develop, and acquire biomethane assets across Spain and Italy, combining greenfield construction with strategic acquisitions over the next four years.
Best Bank for Sustaining Communities
Best Bank for Social Bonds
Best Bank for Sustainability Bonds
CaixaBank
CaixaBank continued to deepen its community-focused approach in 2025, channeling financing to households, municipalities, and essential services through a variety of instruments.
In sustainability bonds, CaixaBank issued a landmark €1 billion green bond in June, ultimately attracting more than €3.6 billion in demand. Proceeds were linked to a substantial pool of eligible green assets and directed to climate priorities, including renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, clean transportation, and water infrastructure.
CaixaBank also issued a €1 billion tier-2 social bond in November, drawing demand above €1.9 billion. The transaction was backed by a €9.7 billion eligible social-asset portfolio and channeled funding toward poverty reduction, financial inclusion, access to health and education, gender equality, and social housing.
Further showcasing its commitment to community finance, CaixaBank sponsored multiple community-level initiatives, including €300 million for the autonomous Community of Madrid for social-impact projects and a €5 million facility to expand the CEL Toda Sevilla local energy community across 29 municipalities, supporting collective solar self-consumption for more than 5,000 families and businesses.
Best Bank for Sustainability Transparency
Nordea
By placing quantified targets and interim-progress metrics at the forefront of its operations, Nordea continued to strengthen transparency across all corners of its sustainability offering, while still scaling on volumes.
By the end of the third quarter of 2025, the Nordic bank’s cumulative sustainable-finance facilitation under its 2022 to 2025 program had already reached €223 billion, surpassing its €200 billion 2025 target ahead of schedule.
During that period, Nordea tightened its transparency standards by introducing clearer frameworks and more-granular eligibility disclosures. In 2025, it updated its green-funding framework to specify biodiversity- and nature-positive categories, including conservation, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity credits, and certified sustainable agriculture, clarifying how projects qualify and how outcomes are tracked.
Among the bank’s flagship deals in 2025, the Nordic giant served as sustainability structuring adviser and joint lead manager on the Kingdom of Denmark’s inaugural EU green bond, building a “Do No Significant Harm” package under a Sustainable Fitch-reviewed factsheet for a program targeting up to 10 billion Danish kroner ($1.6 billion) in 2025.
Best Bank for ESG-Related Loans
Best Bank for Transition/Sustainability-Linked Loans
ING
Anchoring its strategy in some of the region’s most capital-intensive sectors, such as transport, retail, and renewables, ING turned in a standout year in its home market, generating €110 billion in sustainable volumes in the first nine months, up 29% YoY.
In the first half of the year, the Dutch bank completed 400 sustainability deals across Western Europe, with several transition and sustainability-linked loans at the forefront.
In April 2025, the bank acted as joint sustainability coordinator on the refinancing of international retail company Ceconomy’s €900 million ESG-linked revolving credit facility, tying the margin to KPIs on use-phase greenhouse-gas intensity, refurbished-product sales, and women in management.
ING also supported France’s state railway SNCF with a €3.5 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit facility as joint sustainability coordinator and joint lead arranger/bookrunner, with pricing linked to KPIs on Science Based Targets initiative 1.5°C-aligned emissions cuts, responsible procurement, and vocational training. ING also served as the sole sustainability coordinator on NeXtWind’s €1.8 billion green loan to fund acquisitions and wind repowering, modernizing more than half of its wind farms and targeting over 3 GW of capacity by 2028.
