Norfund has committed 15 million USD in a senior unsecured loan to Banco Promerica Guatemala. The loan will be used by the bank to continue building its SME and green line portfolio and 3 million USD of the loan will be used specifically for contributing to financing renewable energy projects, principally solar projects.
This is Norfund’s third investment into the Promerica Group, one of the largest financial groups in Central America with its origins in Nicaragua and with a footprint in 9 different countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Banco Promerica Guatemala started operating in 2007 with the acquisition of Bancasol, an institution founded in 1995. It has since grown into a mid-sized universal bank, with total assets of over 2.5 billion USD.
The Promerica Group was the first banking group in the Central American region to adopt the United Nations Environment Programme’s Principles for Responsible Banking which offer the banks the framework to align their strategy with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Promerica continues to build its green strategy both on the asset and liability side supported by green funding from Norfund and other DFIs and through technical assistance programs.
Heidi Achong, Investment Manager at Norfund, is Project Manager for the Promerica Group of Banks. “Globally, banks are important intermediaries of green debt instruments that are setting climate related targets alongside governments, funds and institutional investors.”
Through our investments, Norfund supports financial institutions to enable them to play this vital role also in low to middle income countries.
Heidi Achong, Investment Manager at Norfund
In October 2021 Norfund also closed a similar line of USD 10MM for Banco Promerica El Salvador. To date the Promerica Group has been able to build a total portfolio of green loans of USD 408MM using funding from a mix of development finance institutions.
Banco Promerica Costa Rica, a Norfund investee since 2018, was the first regional bank to approach Norfund with a well-developed proactive plan of in total 60 million USD to directly support SMEs during the pandemic.