NEW DELHI: India’s third-largest private sector bank, Axis Bank has proclaimed a series of commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and extend its support to India. It has also launched the sustainable financing framework, which articulates the Bank’s strategy for financing Environmental Social and Governance-aligned sectors (ESG)
According to their commitments, the bank has set a target lending of Rs 30,000 crore on an incremental basis over the next 5 years towards appropriate sectors. Axis Bank is now known as India’s first financial institution to have established a standalone ESG-committee, with a strong intent to adopt a strategic step for the organisation’s plans and performance. The commitments, which have been laid out by the bank, include bringing down the exposure to carbon-intensive sector in its wholesale banking business index; expanding risk coverage under its ESG policy for lending; improvising and deploying an ESG risk assessment toolkit for large corporates, SME and agri-business by 2023; and carbon neutrality in its business operations.
Over the years, Axis Bank has been recognized for its ESG-aligned performance and impact. Moreover, it is amongst the first companies in the country to announce such a wide variety of initiatives to aid India in achieving sustainability.