“Sustainability is an integral part of all our operations. We have previously linked our loan facility to the company’s sustainability agenda. We are taking the next step by linking our guarantee facility to the same KPIs”, says Olof Stålnacke, CFO at Sweco.
For the fourth year in a row, SEB has been ranked as the best sustainability advisor by large companies and financial institutions in the Nordics. The bank also has a leading position in the market for sustainable financing, both in terms of green, social, and sustainability-linked loans and bonds.
SEB is now further broadening the range of sustainable financing by offering both sustainability-linked and green bank guarantees.
“We want to help companies fulfil their sustainability strategy through their entire financing”, says Olle Billinger, a specialist in sustainable financing at SEB.
Bank guarantees are a standard product in Trade Finance. They can be used as security in all types of business agreements and can apply to everything from delivering goods or carrying out an assignment to paying rent for premises.
The agreement that Sweco has reached with SEB concerns sustainability-linked bank guarantees. The design is the same as for sustainability-linked loans, i.e. the product is linked to the company’s sustainability strategy.
“We set up a framework with sustainability goals and KPIs. Then we do an annual follow-up and based on how well the customer has met the KPIs, we adjust the commission for the guarantee and for all the client’s other guarantees with SEB. When the customer reaches his goals, the fee is lower and vice versa”, says Sara Dahlman, product manager for bank guarantees at SEB.
Sweco has previously signed a sustainability-linked loan, the terms of which are tied to the architect and engineering firm’s long-term initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in its operations and achieve an increased gender balance with more women among the employees. The sustainability-linked guarantee facility follows the same framework and KPIs.
The other variant that SEB offers is green bank guarantees. These are linked to individual projects that meet SEB’s framework for green financing. It can be about guarantees related to the construction of wind farms or other projects that meet the conditions for green loans and bonds.