Standard Chartered Bangladesh has executed country’s first sustainable trade finance transaction locally and provided sustainable trade finance support to Square Textiles, a subsidiary of Square Group, in supplying yarn made from sustainably sourced cotton to their local buyer Echotex Ltd under a Letter of Credit transaction.
Standard Chartered Bank’s Sustainable Trade Finance framework enables identification of sustainable activities in the physical supply chain or manufacturing process and enables capital to be directed towards these to encourage and enable such activities. One of the pillars in that framework is about financing sustainable goods which carry certifications from certain approved bodies, like the BCI.
Echotex Ltd is a 100% export oriented ready-made garments company. They are also members of BCI, producing apparels from fabric made with sustainable yarn, and selling to global buyers who also want to sell goods produced under sustainable practices.
NaserEzazBijoy, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh said “Our vision is to become the most sustainable and responsible bank, and the leading private sector catalyser for the Sustainable Development Goals where it matters most, across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Providing sustainable trade finance to Bangladeshi Textile and Garments industry is a big step towards realising this vision. As in terms of export of clothing Bangladesh is one of the leading countries in Ready-Made Garments sector in the world, there is significant opportunity here to provide Sustainable Trade Finance to our backward linkage manufacturers, who source sustainable cotton, and to our direct exporters, who produce using sustainable fabric and sell to retailers who are conscious about their sustainability footprint. This presents a good opportunity to promote sustainability across the cotton supply chain. We are extremely proud to partner with Square Textiles Ltd with which our journey goes back to it’s inception and more recently established client Echotex. It is really delightful to witness that regardless of the vintage of relationships, there is strong alignment of passion for sustainability.”
TapanChowdhury, Chairman of Square Textiles, said “Sustainability and concern for the environment should be a key consideration for any manufacturing business. It is certainly a key agenda here at Square Group. As one of the leading textile companies in the country, we are aware of our responsibility to lead by example, and hence we have invested heavily in our sustainability drive. We are sourcing cotton now from BCI member suppliers and also selling our yarn to exporters whose ultimate buyers are retailers aligned with sustainability. Thus, we are contributing to end-to-end sustainable cotton initiative across the textile and garments supply chain. We are very glad that our Bank, Standard Chartered, Bangladesh, is also aligned to our values and has supported our export with their Sustainable Trade Finance program. I understand that this is a first of its kind in Bangladesh and would like to congratulate Standard Chartered for their excellent initiative. Square Group is proud to be part of this transaction.”
Mr. Mohammad Bin Quasem, Director of Echotex Ltd said, “Here at Echotex, we take our responsibility to the environment very seriously, which is why we use yarn and fabric produced with sustainable cotton to manufacture our products. Many of the retailers we export to have BCI membership. In addition to our own concern for the environment, being sustainable is also commercially beneficial. This is because, the consumers in our export markets are becoming increasingly environment conscious. Consequently, the global retailers now prefer to source from companies who manufacture sustainably. Standard Chartered’s Sustainable Trade Financing program is an apt way to support us in our sustainability initiative. We felicitate them on being the trail-blazers in the country for Sustainable Trade Financing.”
