ING has updated its green funding architecture, replacing its existing Green Bond Framework with a broader Global Green Funding Framework that expands the range of instruments eligible to carry the bank's green label. The update extends the programme beyond senior unsecured bonds to encompass covered bonds, commercial paper, medium-term notes, and deposits — a material broadening of scope that allows the bank to channel green label funding across a significantly wider set of liability types.
The framework update reflects both the growing sophistication of the sustainable finance market and ING's ambition to scale its green funding activities in step with the expansion of its underlying green loan portfolio. The bank's Eligible Green Loan Portfolio has grown from EUR 1.3 billion in 2015 to EUR 53.7 billion by 2024, a trajectory that illustrates the pace at which ING has built the asset base available to back green instrument issuance.
ELIGIBLE ASSETS SPAN GREEN BUILDINGS AND RENEWABLES
The framework identifies two primary categories of eligible green assets. Green buildings in the Netherlands and Germany form one pillar, covering residential and commercial properties that meet defined energy efficiency thresholds and thereby contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in both countries. Renewable energy projects worldwide constitute the second category, with the global scope reflecting ING's international lending operations across a range of market and project types.
The inclusion of commercial paper and deposits within the eligible instrument set is a notable feature of the updated framework. Commercial paper enables ING to issue short-dated green instruments for investors with shorter investment horizons or liquidity requirements that preclude participation in traditional bond maturities. Green deposits, meanwhile, allow corporate and institutional clients to place funds with ING under a structure that directs proceeds to eligible green assets, extending the reach of the bank's green funding proposition into the treasury management activities of its commercial clients.
ING said the framework has been developed in alignment with established market principles for sustainable finance. The bank publishes post-issuance impact reporting that details the allocation of proceeds and the environmental metrics associated with funded projects, providing the transparency that institutional investors require to include ING's green instruments within their own sustainability-mandated portfolios.
GREEN LOAN PORTFOLIO GROWS FORTYFOLD SINCE 2015
The growth of the Eligible Green Loan Portfolio from EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 53.7 billion over approximately nine years represents a fortyfold expansion and reflects the accelerating pace of green lending across ING's European and international book. The Netherlands and Germany have been the most significant contributors to the green buildings component, driven by regulatory requirements on energy performance certification and strong borrower demand for financing linked to building renovation and new sustainable construction.
The scale of the portfolio provides ING with a substantial and diversified pool of assets against which to issue green instruments across the full range of tenors and formats now covered by the Global Green Funding Framework. The bank's approach of anchoring its green issuance to a rigorously defined and independently reviewed asset pool is designed to provide creditors with confidence that the green label carries substantive meaning and that proceeds are being directed to projects with measurable environmental benefit.