Bank of Ireland has launched a sustainability-linked loan product in partnership with Kerry Dairy Ireland to provide additional funding options for farmers implementing sustainable farming practices.

The bank, which made underlying pretax profits of over €1bn in the first six months of this year, said the lending facility, called 'Enviroflex', is initially open for applications that participate in Kerry’s Evolve sustainably programme.

Bank of Ireland indicated that there would be discounted flexible finance terms for the loans.

Bank of Ireland head of agri sector Eoin Lowry said that they looked forward to making the product available to more farmers across the agriculture industry in 2024.

Objectives

General manager of Kerry Agribusiness James O’Connell said the sustainability-linked loans “enhances our objective of facilitating and accelerating the adoption of more sustainable farming practices”.

While there was no indication of the rate the loans would be offered at, the press release did suggest it would be at a discount to the bank’s current 7.05% small business lending variable rate.