Germany’s DekaBank joins Poseidon Principles

DekaBank, the securities services provider of the German Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe), has become the latest financial institution to join the Poseidon Principles framework for responsible ship finance.

The Poseidon Principles are a framework for measuring and publicly reporting the carbon footprint of financial institutions’ shipping portfolios.

With DekaBank as the latest signatory, the Poseidon Principles are now estimated to cover over 50% of the global ship finance portfolio.

“Sustainability is a high priority for DekaBank and a central component of its business strategy. For ship finance, we already implemented specific sustainability principles about five years ago and also developed our own score cards for ship financing within the framework of which CO2 emissions can be recorded systematically,” Marco Albers, Head of Specialised Lending, DekaBank, commented.

“The Poseidon Principles are now an additional key element to further integrate climate change into our lending decisions and to monitor the decarbonization targets of our shipping portfolio.”

The Poseidon Principles are aligned with the IMO’s ambition for GHG emissions from international shipping to peak as soon as possible and to reduce total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008. Signatories commit to publicly reporting the alignment of their shipping portfolios with the IMO target on an annual basis.

“I welcome DekaBank’s commitment to the Poseidon Principles. As a voluntary emissions disclosure framework, the Poseidon Principles allow forward-thinking lenders to take the first step needed to play our part in shipping decarbonization: quantify and track our financed emissions,” Paul Taylor, Head of Shipping and Offshore, Société Générale and Vice Chair of the Poseidon Principles Association, said.

To date, 28 financial institutions have joined the Poseidon Principles: ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance Assurance Export, Citi, Credit Agricole CIB, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Credit Suisse, Danish Ship Finance, Danske Bank, DekaBank, Development Bank of Japan, DNB, Export Finance Norway, Finnvera, ING, MUFG Bank, Nordea Bank, OCBC Bank, SACE, SEB, Shinsei Bank, Société Générale, SpareBank 1 SR-Bank, Sparebanken Vest, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.