52145 - RSF Habib Metro

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Summary of Investment Information

Project Number

52145

Company Name

Habib Metropolitan Bank

Date SPI Disclosed

Dec 3, 2025

Country

Pakistan

Region

Middle East

Projected Board Date

Dec 19, 2025

Environmental Category

FI-2 - Limited

Status

Pending Disbursement

Last Updated Date

Jan 17, 2026

Department

Regional Industry FIG MCT

Industry

Financial Markets

Previous Events

Approved : Dec 22, 2025
Signed : Dec 30, 2025

Sector

Commercial Banking - General

Project Description

The proposed project is a 50:50 unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (“RSF”) on an aggregate portfolio of up to US$80 million in equivalent Pakistani Rupees (“PKR”) (including up to US$40 million in equivalent PKR for IFC’s own account) with Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (“HMBL” or the “Bank”), an existing IFC client, to support HMBL’s ambition to enhance on-lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across Pakistan, with a 20% carve out for Agribusiness SMEs (the “Project”). The total proposed tenor is up to 6 years, consisting of a 3-year ramp-up, and a clean-up period of 3 years starting after the ramp-up period.

Associated Advisory Engagement

The Project is not associated with any advisory services engagement

Sponsor / Cost / Location

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee	40.0
Loan
Equity

IFC's loan to the financial institution described in this SII is targeted for on-lending to the following sector(s):

Product Type	Use of Proceeds
Guarantee	Loans to SME Borrowers

IFC's Definitions of Targeted Sectors can be found here.

Development Impact

Financial Additionality: Innovative financing structure: With the help of SLGP, IFC will be able to provide effective risk mitigation to HMBL to enhance its local currency denominated on-lending to SMES across Pakistan. IFC's rating on the underlying portfolio coverage will also benefit the Bank from additional capital optimization (subject to SBP approvals).. Non-Financial Additionality: Knowledge, Innovation and Capacity Building: The potential AS component under the SLGP program will assist the Bank to (i) integrate the RSF product into its systems and procedures for effective ramp-up and (ii) build capacity to ensure alignment of product strategy to the local SME market demand. HMBL - historically being a trade focused bank - is also an ideal candidate for IFC to add under IFC's ESG Academy advisory program which is focused on building ESG capacity across FIs in the country. The E & S specialist would be working with the Bank to develop and E & S Management System.

Indicator	Metrics	Comments
Board Composition - Total (#)	individuals
Board Composition - Women (#)	individuals
Direct Employment (#) Operations And Maintenance	individuals
Female Direct Employment (#) Operations And Maintenance	individuals
Number of Senior Management Positions	individuals
Number of Women In Senior Management	individuals

E&S Category Rationale / Risks and Mitigation

The Project is an unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (RSF) for Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (HMBL or Bank) in Pakistan. Historically, the Bank has focused mostly on working capital and trade finance with the intent to further expand its SME financing. Within the SME segment, a large portion of its exposure is in short-term wholesale and trade finance. The Bank has limited exposure to companies operating in high-risk environmental and social (E&S) sectors such as power generation, transmission, telecom, hospitality, and large-scale construction. The IFC RSF will be used exclusively for supporting SMEs in agriculture, followed by textiles, machinery, small scale chemicals and services. Most of these sectors pose low to medium E&S risks and potential impacts. IFC’s RSF will not be used to support any activities on the IFC Exclusion List, or higher risk business activities that may involve involuntary resettlement, risk of adverse impacts on indigenous peoples, significant risks to or impacts on the environment, community health and safety, biodiversity, cultural heritage, risk of retrenchment, or significant occupational health and safety risks. Hence, the E&S risk of the proposed investment is considered medium, and the Project is categorized as FI-2 according to IFC's Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability. The applicable requirements include: (i) the IFC Exclusion List; (ii) the relevant national E&S laws and regulations; and (iii) life and fire safety and Labor and Working Conditions (IFC Performance Standard 2) at the HMBL level.

HMBL has an E&S management system (ESMS) which largely follows IFC Performance Standard 1, and adequate HR policy and procedures generally in line with IFC Performance Standard 2. The ESMS includes E&S risk categorization procedures, E&S due diligence, identification of corrective actions, and risk-based monitoring of sub-borrower’s performance. The Bank has nominated an E&S officer responsible for overall E&S risk management. To be fully aligned with IFC’s E&S requirements, the Bank will strengthen its ESMS by including relevant monitoring and supervision checklist, train relevant staff on ESMS implementation and enhance its grievance response mechanism for employees.

S.no	Title	Anticipated Completion Date
1	Updated ESMS	12/31/2025
2	Training plan developed	12/31/2025
3	E&S training for relevant staff completed	05/31/2026
4	Grievance Response Mechanism updated	12/31/2025

Contacts

For Inquiries About the Project, Contact

Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited
Syed Jahanzaib Haider Zaidi
Unit Head – Non-Bank FIs & Multilateral Relationships
+92 21 32644532, Ext: 4532
jahanzaib.haider@habibmetro.com
3rd Floor, Spencers Building, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi, Pakistan.
www.habibmetro.com

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IFC supports its clients in addressing environmental and social issues arising from their business activities by requiring its real sector clients to set up and administer appropriate grievance mechanisms and/or procedures to address complaints from Affected Communities in relation to environmental and social issues arising from IFC's clients' business activities. Since 2012, IFC's Financial Intermediary clients applying the Performance Standards are required to develop External Communications Mechanisms to receive and review inquiries or complaints from any interested party regarding the E&S risks and impacts of their operations.

For IFC projects that are active or under consideration, individual(s), or their authorized representative(s), who allege they have been or will be adversely affected by E&S risks or impacts arising from IFC's clients' business activities, may submit a complaint to IFC directly for consideration. When receiving an E&S complaint, IFC engages with complainants and works with its clients to find solutions to E&S concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Complaints can be submitted to IFC online at www.ifc.org/escomplaints or by email to EScomplaints@ifc.org.

IFC complaint response is separate from and complementary to IFC’s clients’ project level grievance mechanisms and IFC’s Independent Accountability Mechanism (CAO). Lodging a complaint directly with IFC does not, at any time, restrict access to CAO.

Affected communities have unrestricted access to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for IFC and MIGA. CAO facilitates the resolution of complaints related to IFC and MIGA projects and sub-projects, undertakes reviews of IFC’s and MIGA’s environmental and social compliance, fosters public accountability for their commitments, and enhances the environmental and social performance of IFC and MIGA.

Independent of IFC and MIGA management and reporting directly to the IFC and MIGA Boards of Executive Directors, CAO helps resolve issues raised about the environmental and social impacts of projects through a neutral, collaborative, problem-solving approach via its Dispute Resolution function. It also reviews IFC’s and MIGA’s compliance with environmental and social policies, assesses related harm, and recommends remedial actions through its Compliance function. Additionally, CAO provides advice to IFC, MIGA, and their Boards to enhance environmental and social sustainability performance and minimize the risk of harm.

Complaints may relate to environmental and social harm regarding any aspect of the planning, implementation, or impact of a project or sub-project, and can be made by any individual, group, community, entity, or other party affected or likely to be affected by the environmental or social impacts of an IFC- or MIGA-financed business activity.

Complaints can be submitted by any of the following methods:

Online form: available at https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/
Mail/Hand Delivery to: 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA
Voice mail: +1 202 458 1973
Email: cao@worldbankgroup.org
SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal: +1 202 650 2627

CAO receives and addresses complaints in accordance with the CAO Policy, which can be accessed at: https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/policies-guidelines.

This Summary of Investment Information (SII) is prepared by IFC to disclose a factual summary of the main elements of the potential investment. It also includes findings and recommendations related to environmental and social considerations regarding this potential investment. The purpose of the SII is to enhance the transparency of IFC’s activities. For any project documentation or data included or attached herein, whether prepared by the project sponsor or otherwise, authorization has been given for public release by the project sponsor. IFC considers that this SII is of adequate quality for release to the public, but has not necessarily independently verified all of the project information therein. It is distributed in advance of IFC Board of Directors’ consideration and may be periodically updated thereafter. Board dates are estimates only and this document should not be construed as presuming the outcome of the Board Directors’ decision. The following SII is disclosed in accordance with IFC's Access to Information Policy (AIP) that went into effect on January 1, 2012.

The map is for illustrative purposes and does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the World Bank, concerning the legal status of any country or territory or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. Country borders or names do not necessarily reflect the World Bank Group's official position. In some cases, available project location information is limited to the country of the project's activities. Locations are approximate.

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