The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has ratified the final two pillars of its global principles for evaluating sustainability in trade finance, completing the first fully standardised framework of its kind.
The framework comprises the Principles for Social Trade Finance and the Principles for Sustainability-Linked Supply Chain Finance, alongside the pre-existing Principles for Green Trade Finance (PGTF).
Collectively known as the ICC Principles for Sustainable Trade Finance, the ICC said the outcome was “a practical and comparable framework that can be applied across the full spectrum of trade finance”.
The ratification follows a public consultation launched at the United Nations’ Financing for Development Conference held in Seville in July 2025.
The ICC and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) jointly developed the principles through consultations with more than 100 banks, corporates, multilaterals, technology platforms and civil-society experts, the ICC said.
Under the framework, the Principles for Social Trade Finance provide a use-of-proceeds approach “for identifying, evidencing and safeguarding” the social impacts of trade finance, aligned with the Loan Market Association’s social loan principles and the International Capital Market Association’s social bond principles.
The International Trade and Forfaiting Association has also looked to capture the social benefits created by trade finance transactions and launched a model for measuring their social value last year.
The ICC’s Principles for Sustainability-Linked Supply Chain Finance offer a “governance blueprint” to support the selection of key performance indicators, verification and multi-bank coordination across sustainability-linked supply chain finance programmes.
The ICC is now inviting stakeholders throughout the trade finance sector to endorse the newly ratified principles.
In November last year, several more banks announced their endorsement of the PGTF, including BNP Paribas, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, Rabobank and Société Générale.
Commerzbank, ING and Santander endorsed the framework in June.
Standard Chartered announced in September it had provided what it said was the first trade finance product structured to align with the ICC principles, in the form of a guarantee to a Shanghai green technology firm.
The bank became the first major lender to adopt the principles back in February 2025.
