BRD plans sustainable financing of €1 billion in Romania

Alina Oprea
BRD-SocGen, the third bank on the Romanian market in terms of assets, has set as a strategic objective the target of €1 billion in sustainable financing granted by the end of 2025, after the value of new sustainable financing transactions made in 2022 reached €215 million. The bank reported a volume of sustainable financing granted in 2022, almost RON1 billion, which also includes the first syndicated green loan in the real estate sector, according to the bank's annual report.

"The results related to 2022 reconfirm the fact that BRD is ready to finance the sustainable transition, integrating ESG principles in the lending activity. The value of new sustainable financing transactions made in 2022 reached €215 million, representing an important step towards the strategic objective of EUR 1 billion in sustainable financing granted by the end of 2025", the bank's report states.

In 2022, BRD continued the integration of ESG principles in its activity. The offer included green credits addressed to retail customers: the Expresso Verde and Habitat Verde credits. BRD published the first edition of its sustainability report, Building Tomorrow, which exposes the bank's non-financial activities. Through this report and its new sustainability platform, Lumea9, BRD aims to provide an overview of how it approaches sustainability and help companies and the general public better understand the concepts and terms related to sustainability.

Also, in October 2022, BRD organized in Bucharest the first climate change summit - "Climate Change Summit", the most important event on sustainability issues organized so far in Romania. The summit aims to become the most important climate solutions event in Central and Eastern Europe.

BRD continued to invest in the fields it traditionally supports, considering them essential for the future of Romanian society: culture (Scena9.ro), education (Scoala9.ro, Alfabetar), science and technology (BRD First Tech Challenge), sport (Romanian handball) and environment (BRD Fund for Forests). Rezidența9, the cultural center of BRD, continued to host events, conferences, exhibitions dedicated to the creators of contemporary culture. The Literacy Program has continued to grow, involving over 100 schools and over 550 teachers. The technological education platform, Mindcraft Stories, had, in 2022, over 400,000 readers, and the BRD First Tech Challenge contest, now in its sixth edition, reached over 20% of high schools in Romania in 2022.

Last year, the bank granted new loans to individuals of almost €1,5 billion (RON7.5 billion), with a record production of housing loans (+58% in annual dynamics).

"We granted new loans worth almost RON7.5 billion to individuals and we had excellent dynamics in lending to companies, materialized by a 26% increase in the portfolio compared to the end of 2021, also supported by the active participation in the IMM Invest program. Our strong commitment to support the transition to sustainability continued to materialize intrafirm participants, with sustainable financings worth approximately RON1.1 billion closed in 2022", says François Bloch, CEO of BRD Groupe Société Générale.

The net profit of the BRD Group in Romania increased last year by 1.4%, to €267,4 million (RON1.337 billion), while the net profit of the bank was €257 million (RON 1.285 billion).

The annual revenues of the BRD Group reached €691,8 million (RON 3.459 billion), higher by +11.7% compared to 2021, and the bank's net banking income was €657,6 million (RON 3.288 billion).

BRD - Groupe Société Générale operates a network of 460 units. The total assets of the bank amounted, at the end of December 2022, to €14,4 million (RON 72 billion). BRD is part of the Société Générale Group, one of the largest European financial services groups and a major player in the economy for over 150 years. The group has 117,000 employees in 66 countries and 25 million customers worldwide, in three key activities: Retail banking in France, International Retail banking, Insurance and Financial Services and Global Banking and Investor Solutions.

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