The US International Development Finance Corporation ( DFC ) has granted a US$200 million loan to Vietnam’s SeABank to promote climate-change finance and support women-owned and -led corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises ( SMEs ).

The loan is among the 34 new projects approved by DFC – America’s development finance institution – with a total value of more than US$1.4 billion, including 22 transactions assisting businesses in developing regions across the world. SeABank is the only Vietnamese bank on the list of approved transactions.

Last June, the Hanoi-based lender secured a US$150 million loan package from the World Bank’s investment arm IFC and five international investment funds, namely Banque Internationale de Commerce-BRED, Blue Orchard Microfinance Fund, Kasikornbank, the OPEC Fund for International Development, and responsAbility Investments.

The Vietnamese bank said this January that IFC had decided to provide another US$70 million, bringing the private bank’s total credit and trade finance line to US$220 million.