Standard Chartered and QNB Türkiye Structure Landmark $25M Gender-Focused Repo

The facility represents Standard Chartered’s inaugural repo financing transaction explicitly tied to women’s economic empowerment . By linking a high-volume treasury liquidity tool directly to positive social impact, the transaction establishes a scalable blueprint for deploying capital markets infrastructure toward financial inclusion and female entrepreneurship . The transaction is structured under QNB Türkiye’s comprehensive Sustainable Finance and Product Framework .

Proceeds from the facility will directly power QNB Türkiye’s lending program targeting eligible women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the country . Under the framework’s eligibility criteria, targeted businesses must demonstrate meaningful female leadership, defined through specific corporate governance metrics : Majority Ownership: Enterprises maintaining majority female ownership . Governance Alignment: Significant female equity holdings combined with active management representation .

Operational Leadership: Executive leadership structures driven by female operational managers . By funneling international capital into these qualified enterprises, the facility aims to address structural capital access gaps facing women entrepreneurs, who serve as pivotal drivers of job creation, innovation, and long-term economic development across Türkiye . “We are always looking at how we can evolve traditional financing structures to deliver greater impact for our clients and the communities they serve,” stated Caroline Eber-Ittel, CEO France and head of coverage Europe at Standard Chartered .

“This transaction demonstrates how capital markets solutions can be harnessed to support women’s economic empowerment while meeting our clients’ funding and liquidity objectives . We’re proud to partner with QNB Türkiye on a transaction that not only breaks new ground for the Bank but also helps expand opportunities for women-led businesses across Türkiye .” Repurchase agreements have historically operated as short-term liquidity, collateral, and funding mechanisms for institutional banking balance sheets . By conditioning repo liquidity on verifiable social metrics, Standard Chartered and QNB Türkiye are advancing the frontier of social-impact capital instruments