UK-based bank Standard Chartered is adopting the International Chamber of Commerce’s ( ICC ) Principles for Sustainable Trade Finance, making the lender the first international bank to confirm alignment with the global business network’s recently announced industry principles. 

In October 2024, the ICC published the principles aimed at providing clear, transparent and consistent guidelines to enable banks, corporates and investors to effectively channel capital towards sustainable and inclusive trade finance facilities.

The ICC principles, the bank says, provide a robust methodology for evaluating sustainable trade finance transactions, including:

• a standardized approach for assessing the use of proceeds in trade finance transactions
• enhanced due diligence protocols for sustainability verification
• unified reporting standards to ensure consistency across financial institutions.

The bank’s sustainable finance solutions are also governed by two frameworks – the Transition Finance Framework and the Green and Sustainable Product Framework 2024 – that provide transparency on transaction and client eligibility criteria, while providing for adherence to rigorous environmental and social risk management standards.

“Standard Chartered first introduced its sustainable trade finance proposition in 2021,” says said Sofia Hammoucha, the lender’s global head of trade and working capital, “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.”