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Standard Chartered has become the first international bank to fully adopt the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) Principles for Sustainable Trade Finance, the bank announced yesterday from its Singapore headquarters.
The ICC published these principles in October 2024, establishing clear guidelines to help financial institutions, corporates, and investors direct capital towards sustainable and inclusive trade finance.
“Standard Chartered first introduced its sustainable trade finance proposition in 2021 and as part of our efforts to support the creation of sustainable trade finance standards across the industry, we are pleased to adopt ICC’s principles,” said Sofia Hammoucha, Global Head of Trade & Working Capital at the bank.
Two frameworks govern the bank’s sustainable finance solutions: the Transition Finance Framework and the Green and Sustainable Product Framework 2024. These frameworks establish transparency on transaction and client eligibility criteria while ensuring adherence to environmental and social risk management standards.
The documents highlight that the climate transition is more challenging in emerging markets, particularly since only 10-20% of the capital required to deliver the objective of net zero by 2050 (which amounts between $1.8 trillion and $3 trillion) flows to these regions.
Raelene Martin, Head of Sustainability at ICC, welcomed Standard Chartered’s adoption of the principles, calling it “an important step in aligning the industry around common methodology for the assessment of sustainable trade finance.”
The ICC Principles provide a standardised approach for evaluating sustainable trade finance transactions. They include methodologies for assessing use-of-proceeds, enhanced due diligence protocols, and unified reporting standards to ensure consistency across financial institutions.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a strategic partner of ICC, co-led the working group that developed the principles. Ravi Hanspal, Partner at BCG, noted the significance of this adoption: “The formal recognition and adoption of ICC’s Principles for Sustainable Trade Finance by a leading global financial institution is a huge step forward on this journey and is hopefully the first of many more.”
