Saudi Arabia"s largest banking group, Saudi National Bank, has become the first in the Kingdom to create a Sustainable Finance Framework, the company has announced. SNB has teamed up with HSBC to create a platform focusing on long-term investments in sustainable economic activities and projects. It is made up of four elements: encouraging sustainability financing; protecting the environment; empowering individuals and societies; and endorsing principles of ethical governance. “SNB’s Sustainable Finance framework, as the first by a Saudi Banking Group, represents a key milestone for the banking sector in the Kingdom and will establish a new benchmark for regional ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks, facilitating access to multiple avenues of sustainable financing,” said Khaled Darwish, HSBC’s head of debt capital markets for the Middle East and North Africa region, in a statement. The framework is part of SNB’s commitment to support the Kingdom’s development agenda through Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative.