OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2011. At present, energy saving and environmental protection issues have been paid widespread attention in the world, and been sparing no efforts to be solved. The Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC), as a large listed bank with international influence, has profoundly understood the in-depth influence of resources and environment on economic and social development, and is earnestly implementing the national industrial and environmental protection policies, reported the press-centre of ABC.

ABC continues infuses the concepts of "green development" and "low-carbon finance" into its credit policies, systems and procedures, and vigorously supports the development of the "green industry", "green agriculture" and the tertiary industry represented by recycling economy projects, energy conservation & environmental protection projects, producers of environment-friendly equipment and sewage treatment enterprises. In development of the credit business, ABC gives top priority to the projects which strictly follow the environmental protection examination procedures, adopt advanced technologies and reduce energy consumption. By the end of 2010, ABC had granted financial support to 367 energy-saving & environment-friendly projects, with loans of  RMB59,713 million. This noticeably boosts the transformation of economic development pattern and the realization of the energy conservation & emission reduction objectives for the 11th Five-Year Plan, and helps to maintain the sustainable development of ABC's credit business.

In addition to the support to "green industry" and "green agriculture", ABC takes the industries with high energy consumption, high pollution and excess capacity as the main targets for analyzing and monitoring in its credit management. It also effectively controls the growth of loans to the above industries by raising the access threshold, intensifying the control of credit lines, centralizing the approval authority, launching name list-based customer management and adopting a "one-vote veto" mechanism. According to an ABC leader, by the end of 2010, the growth rate of loans granted by ABC to the 12 industries with high energy consumption, high pollution and excess capacity, including .steel, cement, paper-making and textiles industries, was 4.4 % lower than the average growth rate of ABC's corporate loans. In addition, ABC had taken back credits from 792 customers of the above industries, involving loans of RMB12.9 billion. 42 loan programs in an amount of RMB2,722 million were rejected for environmental protection reasons.

Over the past years, ABC has accelerated the construction of E-banking service system in order to lower the carbon emission of financial services. In 2010, the E-banking transactions accounted for 56.3% of ABC's banking transactions, increasing 6.5% than 2009. Moreover, ABC expanded number of Kins environment-friendly cards. By the end of 2010, 599,000 such cards have been issued, increasing 173,000 cards than 2009. ABC has also extended great efforts to improve the resource utilization efficiency, improved the green office system, and strived to reduce the resource/energy consumption with office automation, video meetings and normalization of energy conservation behaviors. This tallies with the mainstream values of low-carbon economy, encourages the participation in green consumption and wins warmly applauds from the society. In 2010, ABC was honored the titles of "New Star of Low-Carbon Bank China, 2010" and "Best Green Bank".

The sustainable green credit creates a new business field, high-quality assets and new source of income for ABC. ABC will continue to play its specific role in green finance and sustainable finance, and vigorously develop the green finance business. It will be also better understood the relationship between social responsibility and sustainable development, actively perform its social responsibility through multiple manners, and strive to make a favorable condition for the harmonious co-existence of human, nature and society.