Bank of Guizhou (2023)
| Signing Date | 30 Nov 2020 |
| Region of Headquarters: | Asia-Oceania |
| Current EPFI Reporting Year/Period: | 2023 |
| Institutional Reporting: | Link to Report |
Please read the important notes and disclaimer for further information on ‘EPFI Reporting’, compliance and publication on the EP website.
Further information on this EPFI may be obtained through the Institutional Reporting hyperlink.
Project Finance Advisory Services
Total number mandated in the reporting period: 0
Project Finance Transactions
Total number that reached Financial Close in the reporting period: 6
| Equator Principles Category | A1 | B2 | C3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sector | |||
| Mining | 2 | 2 | |
| Infrastructure | |||
| Oil & Gas | |||
| Power | |||
| Others | 1 | 1 | |
| Region | |||
| Americas | |||
| Europe, Middle East & Africa | |||
| Asia Pacific | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Country Designation | |||
| Designated Country 4 | |||
| Non Designated Country | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Both | |||
| Independent Review | |||
| Yes | 1 | 1 | |
| No | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Totals | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Category A – Projects with potential significant adverse environmental and social risks and/or impacts that are diverse, irreversible or unprecedented.
Category B – Projects with potential limited adverse environmental and social risks and/or impacts that are few in number, generally site-specific, largely reversible and readily addressed through mitigation measures.
Category C – Projects with minimal or no adverse environmental and social risks and/or impacts.
Designated Countries are those countries deemed to have robust environmental and social governance, legislation systems and institutional capacity designed to protect their people and the natural environment.
Project-related Refinance & Project-related Acquisition For Project Finance
Total number that reached Financial Close in the reporting period: 0
Project Name Reporting For Project Finance (And Project-related Refinance & Project-related Acquisition Finance For Project Finance)
Number of projects that were not disclosed as per the disclosure conditions specified in Annex B of the Principles: 6
Under EP4, project name reporting is required for Project Finance transactions that have reached Financial Close and encouraged for Project-Related Corporate Loans that have reached Financial Close.
Project-Related Corporate Loans
Total number that reached Financial Close in the reporting period: 0
Project-related Refinance & Project-related Acquisition For Project-related Corporate Loans
Total number that reached Financial Close in the reporting period: 0
Implementation of the Equator Principles
In 2023, among the projects for which the Bank judged the applicability of the Equator Principles, five projects have reached the effective stage of financing, involving five customers and three types of national standard industries, mainly distributed in construction, mining, natural gas production and supply, and public facilities management. The judgement of applicability and effectiveness of the Equator Principles in the Bank’s project financing business in 2023 are 6 household of customers,with 2 class A, 2 class B cases and 1 class C case respectively. Since the adoption of the Equator Principles, the Bank has engaged an independent third-party environmental and social consulting agency for Class A and vital Class B projects to assist in the Bank’s due diligence on environmental and social risks, conducting compliance analysis on the Equator Principles of the projects. However, considering the economic pressure on the customers’company which is one of the class A projects, they would like to follow but not executed the class A standard. Hence, we considered putting independent third-party on customers may costed,which may resulted in other negative impact. and putting forward action suggestions and plans, and providing enterprises with guidance to adopt corresponding mitigation measures and action plans to mitigate related risks.
Paying high attention to environmental and social risk management, the Bank announced the adoption of the Equator Principles on November 30, 2020, making it the sixth “Equator Bank” in China and the only one in Guizhou Province. The Bank has formulated the Measures for the Administration of Project Financing Applying the Equator Principles of Bank of Guizhou and other relevant systems and management procedures to effectively prevent new risks in financial business such as social and environmental business by judging, assessing and managing the environmental and social risks of the projects to be financed, to build the brand of “Equator Bank”, “Green Bank” and “Carbon Neutral Bank”, and establish the image of a responsible bank.
Equator Principles-based project management:
Organizational guarantee: The Bank has established the Equator Principles Working Team, which is composed of the Office of the Board of Directors, the Corporate Business Department, the Risk Management Department, and the Legal and Compliance Department, to promote the Bank’s environmental and social risk management in project financing, and to implement standardized management of projects applying the Equator Principles with branches.
Environmental and social risk management: The Bank has been strengthening the judgment on the applicability of the Equator Principles to key projects, striving to improve the Bank’s project financing environment and social risk management capabilities through project identification, applicability judgment and other management work.
System guarantee: The Measures of Guizhou Bank for the Management of Project Financing Applying the Equator Principles were issued, which provided guidance for judging, evaluating and managing social and environmental risks in project financing business, standardized the prudent verification of social and environmental issues in project financing, and ensure that the projects applying the Equator Principles could
be managed with rules to follow; The Measures also clarified the responsibilities of the account manager of the operating institution and the business department of the Head Office in social and environmental risk mitigation, project evaluation, contract management and post-loan management.
Further information about Bank of Guizhou´s EP implementation is provided in their 2023 ESG Report (p.49-66) available at: https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2024/0428/2024042800103.pdf