At the end of February, the chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors, Dr Vasily Vysokov, attended the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) annual FinNet conference in Washington D.C. This year’s conference looked at holistic solutions to financial inclusion challenges. The participants discussed access to finance in various countries, with specific reference to agribusiness, energy efficiency, microfinance, small business, and finance for social projects and female entrepreneurs.

Center-invest Bank has valuable experience in all of these areas. Dr Vysokov was invited to speak at the breakout session on sustainable energy finance, which was held in the meeting room of the World Bank’s Board of Directors.

Center-invest Bank
has provided in excess of USD200m to finance more than 2000 projects in various sectors of southern Russia’s economy. These projects have reduced annual СО2 emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes. Guided by best international practice, to address the challenges involved in energy efficiency finance Center-invest Bank has developed, and is successfully implementing, a new integrated approach based on technical, financial and social engineering.
During a plenary session, representatives of Center-invest Bank, Citi, the Philippine bank BPI, and a Canadian financial company presented their views on energy efficiency finance and their experience in this field.

At FinNet 2013 Center-invest Bank not only shared its experience with other conference participants, but also learnt about the latest financial solutions to promote sustainable development in southern Russia.