HDFC Bank inks pact with two carbon-credit firms

MUMBAI: Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Tuesday said it has signed agreements with two leading carbon-credit firms, Cantor CO2E India and Mitcon Consultancy Services, with a view to aid carbon credits.

Under the agreement, the bank will work together with the partners in the areas of awareness building, identifying and registering Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and facilitation of buying and selling of carbon credits in global market, it said in a press release here.

"HDFC Bank plans to focus on reducing carbon emissions by including it in the bank's CSR initiatives. The agreement will help to create awareness and to give end-to-end solutions to clients like implementation of CDM projects," HDFC Bank's Executive Vice-President P V Ananthakrishnan said.

The tie-up will also enable the partners to provide products and services to the bank's clients across various untapped sectors such as housing, agriculture and food-processing, he said.

Promoted by Housing Development Finance Corporation, HDFC Bank has over 1.1 crore customers across the country and has a network of 754 branches in 327 cities.

For the quarter ended December 31, the bank reported a net profit of Rs 430 crore while the total balance sheet size grew by 46.7 per cent to Rs 1,31,440 crore.