Increasing capacity of the Spanish promotional bank to catalyse transformation and uphold future sustainable finance standards

The commission assisted in a project that sought to enhance the institutional capacity of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Spain's national promotional bank. This enhancement was directed towards bolstering its sustainable finance transformation. The ultimate goal was to encourage more long-term investments that incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.

Context

Sustainability is at the core of ICO’s corporate strategy and sustainable finance is one of ICO’s strategic axes. With ICO’s new role as an implementing partner of InvestEU combined with the continuously evolving regulatory landscape surrounding sustainable finance at EU level, the objective of the project was to support ICO on its sustainability journey.

Support delivered

• The project sought to provide ICO with improved institutional capacity to comply with the latest sustainable finance regulatory requirements, and to design, develop and implement sustainable finance reforms within the institution. It aimed to equip ICO with the right tools, skills and understanding to implement the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the InvestEU Sustainability Proofing Guidance, and the Climate and Environmental Tracking Guidance.
• The activities carried out included an analysis and understanding of the compliance requirements linked to InvestEU (Sustainability Proofing and Climate Tracking) and the EU Taxonomy. The project further aimed to help ICO to understand how to best implement these requirements via recommendations, guidelines, and training and capacity building activities.

Expected results

The project generated tangible impacts in terms of knowledge creation and operational changes within ICO, recognising the urgency to shift financial flows to address multiple environmental aims.