Good times return
Following several years of pain, farmers and growers are facing a decent upswing in commodity prices, say economists.
The bank joins a crowd of banks offering sustainable loans to farming customers, including ASB, Westpac, and most recently ANZ.
The loans are designed to help businesses invest in green technology and assist farmers with investment in water efficiency, among other green ventures.
“Every day we hear from New Zealand business owners eager to grow their enterprises and invest in initiatives focussing on making their businesses and New Zealand communities more sustainable,” says BNZ executive customer products and services, Karna Luke.
“BNZ’s suite of sustainable lending initiatives is being designed to deliver great results for our customers through access to lower cost funding,” he says.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) offers banks access to its Funding for Lending Programme (FLP), established during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BNZ utilised the FLP last year to establish its Good to Grow programme in a move designed to help customers navigate uncertain trading conditions by supporting them to invest in their businesses at low interest rates.
Luke says the bank is “recharging and evolving” the Good to Grow programme with $1.4 billion funding from the FLP.
“These funds are all about accelerating our customers’ green ambitions whether they be in housing, or renewable energy including EVs, as well as supporting the growth of Maori business and New Zealand’s army of small and medium enterprises.”
He says an example of this is the bank’s soon-to-be-launched Green purpose business loan.
The loan is designed to support customers with investment initiatives in renewable energy, low emission transport and “the protection of a healthy eco-system”.
While BNZ already has several green-related lending initiatives, it launched its on-farm Sustainable Linked Loan (SLL) earlier this year.
The loan offers interest cost savings for achieving environmental and social targets with farmers able to choose from a range of options they want to tackle. However, reducing emissions is a non-negotiable condition of the loan.
With FLP funding available these initiatives will zero in on delivering positive environmental, social, and governance-based outcomes for our customers and the communities that our customers support.
“This is all about our customers, current and new to BNZ, who have ideas and ambitions – whether they be big or small, who are determined that their next investment will find a way to make their businesses, their homes, and our communities more sustainable and resilient.
“We are ambitious that BNZ’s lower cost and sustainability focussed lending will be the catalyst that kicks New Zealander’s great green ideas into gear,” says Luke.
