On 20 and 21 June, the Grupo Pormerica Green Line Kick-off workshop took place in San Jose, Costa Rica. In this workshop, Promerica banks from four different countries – Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala - came together with consultants from the network of Centers for Cleaner Production and FMO representatives to learn, share experiences and strategize about the development of a green lending product.
Grupo Promerica is a regional banking group with activities in nine countries, primarily in Central America. The Group is a key client of FMO and a strategic partner for the development of green lines in the region. FMO's first green line in Latin America was closed with the Group’s Nicaraguan subsidiary Banpro in 2014, and the success of this project led to the forging of an alliance between Promerica and FMO for the further roll-out of this concept to other countries. Besides financing, FMO offered to provide technical assistance to all banks involved in order to support them in the development a green lending strategy. Given the positive experience in the Banpro transaction with local consultant Centro de Produccion mas Limpia (CPML), upon FMO’s advice, Promerica decided to continue to build on this partnership and connect with consultants from the same network (RECPnet, www.recpnet.org) in the countries selected for the green line roll out.
In close coordination with the client, an intricate technical assistance project was designed in which the already experienced Nicaraguan CPML would act as coordinator of all four CPMLs involved, ensuring quality and consistency across the group. In turn, the other CPMLs would directly work with each of the banks in their respective countries to provide technical input such as market studies, portfolio analysis and training. In addition, FMO is supported by local consultant EcoConsulta which has an overall coordinating and advisory role.
The event held in Costa Rica brought together representatives from the four Promerica banks, the CMPLs in each of their countries, the coordinating CPML, FMO representatives and its technical consultant Econsulta. During the workshop the roles and responsibilities of each party were explained by CPML Nicaragua. The Banpro experience was discussed as concrete example, offering some useful lessons learned. FMO and Ecoconsulta together explained the basic process to design a green line product and elaborated on what FMO considers to be green. Each of the Promerica banks then shared its experiences with green lines so far (if any). Subsequently, each bank, together with its respective CPML came up with a concrete action plan for the coming six months.
