Transition loan

• Your company or association must meet Ekobanken’s lending criteria. The bank assesses the project’s environmental, social or cultural benefit, its connection to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and your ability to repay, using your business or project description and financial information.
• You must document the planned transition, allow the bank to publish your name, activities and loan purpose as a transition loan, and follow up the project annually.
• You must become a bank member and buy at least a SEK 1,000 basic membership share in connection with the loan. This is a long-term investment, separate from money in a bank account, and is not covered by deposit insurance.
• All loans require security: assets or people who guarantee repayment if you cannot repay. If you use property or a tenant-owned apartment as security, lending is limited to at most 75% of its current valuation, assessed case by case. Personal guarantees are another route; each guarantor may guarantee at most two months’ salary.

The bank excludes weapons, mining, large-scale hydropower and dams, non-renewable fuels and energy production, genetically modified organisms in agriculture and food production, uncertified rainforest timber, and production that damages soil, water or air or causes water shortages. It also excludes bribery and tax avoidance, deliberate breaches of Swedish labour law, fur-only animal operations and businesses trading or selling fur, animal testing and captive wild animals used purely for entertainment.

Agriculture, forestry, cultivation and animal husbandry must follow organic, permaculture or biodynamic certification rules. Animal husbandry must be organic or KRAV-labelled and meet the FARMS standard’s relevant animal-welfare conditions: avoid painful handling, use humane slaughter methods and limit long animal journeys. Preventive antibiotics are excluded; treatment must be for the individual animal. Animals may not be kept in extremely restricted environments such as cages for hens or boxes for calves.

For renewable-energy projects, including renewable fuels, the bank requires the latest international sustainability guidelines for that area to be used in assessing the financing.

If your business trades internationally, you must require suppliers to respect human, women’s, children’s and workers’ rights and environmental protections, including protected habitats and species. Trade in endangered species is excluded. For trade with countries where corruption is widespread, you must actively take a stand against corruption. If you import goods from developing countries, Fairtrade and organic or biodynamic labelling are a strong lending criterion.

Your activities must take account of deforestation, old-growth and mountain forest, wetlands, biodiversity and threatened species. The bank also excludes businesses working against sustainable development and climate action, including through lobbying. If a borrower is reported for activities that infringe others’ rights, the bank regards this as grounds to terminate the loan.

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Dates non annoncées

Contact Ekobanken about a transition loan on 08-551 714 70 or info@ekobanken.se. Complete its business credit application and the sustainability questionnaire supplied after submission, and provide documentation of the planned transition.

Send the signed credit application and certified copies of the authorized signatories’ identity documents to Ekobanken, Box 19188, 152 28 Södertälje. Send attachments through internet banking or to info@ekobanken.se. The bank assesses the application and gives written notice if the loan is approved. You must use its loan offer within six months.