The five-year finance package comprises $50 million from IFC’s own account, $37.5 million from the multi-investor Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP) managed by IFC, and $125 million in syndicated loans from Chinese, Thai, and German banks, IFC stated recently.

World Bank’s financial arm said about one third of the package would be earmarked for climate-friendly projects, creating new options for businesses to obtain green financing at a favorable interest rate.

Due to greenhouse-gas emissions, Vietnam is one of the most carbon intensive countries in the world, ranked only after China and Mongolia in the East Asia and Pacific region. This presents Vietnam a $753 billion climate investment opportunity between 2016 and 2030, IFC said.

However, the current climate financing share, as a percentage of total bank financing, in Vietnam is only about five percent, or $10.3 billion, indicating a significant climate finance gap, it added.

"Our loan to VPBank addresses IFC's strategic objective of increasing financing for climate-smart initiatives to boost environmentally sustainable development in emerging markets with high potential of greenhouse gas emissions reduction such as Vietnam," said Rosy Khanna, IFC Financial Institutions Group director for Asia Pacific.

Founded in 1993, VPBank was listed in 2017 and holds total assets of VND411.15 quadrillion ($17.75 billion) as of September 2019.