EBRD lends İş Leasing up to €100 million for green projects, 30% for earthquake regions

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing a financing package of up to €100 million to İş Finansal Kiralama, known as İş Leasing, to fund green investment by businesses across Türkiye, with a focus on the regions hit by the 2023 earthquakes, the bank said on 23 October. Up to €94 million comes from the EBRD itself and up to €6 million is concessional funding from the Clean Technology Fund, part of the Climate Investment Funds.

At least 30 per cent of the financing will go to businesses operating in the earthquake-affected regions, according to the statement. The project also aims to widen women's access to green finance.

The third green facility

The loan is extended under the EBRD's Türkiye Green Economy Financing Facility III, or GEFF III, which supports energy and resource efficiency, renewable energy, climate resilience and other green investments. The release does not give the tenor or the pricing of the loan.

The bank puts the programme in the context of more than 15 years of similar lines. Since the Türkiye Sustainable Energy Financing Facility, TurSEFF, was launched in 2010, it and the GEFFs together have channelled more than €3.3 billion of EBRD green finance through Turkish banks and leasing companies, supporting more than 13,350 projects and close to 4,000 households, according to the release. The EBRD says the renewable energy capacity financed through these facilities now accounts for 5 per cent of Türkiye's renewable energy.

Turkish companies have drawn on development lenders in recent weeks. On 8 October the EBRD lent up to $150 million to Enerjisa Üretim to term out short-term renewables debt, and on 30 September the IFC announced a €100 million eight-year loan to Doğuş Çay.

The borrower and its parent

İş Leasing was established in 1988 and is Türkiye's second-largest leasing provider, the EBRD said. It is a subsidiary of İşbank, which the bank describes as Türkiye's largest private-sector bank. İşbank itself has a new chief executive: its board handed the role to Cahit Çınar as Hakan Aran moved to Şişecam.

This is the second partnership between the bank and the leasing company. The first was a €40 million credit line under TurSEFF, signed in early 2021, which the EBRD described at the time as its first transaction with İş Leasing. That line was backed by the European Union and drew on funds from the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and İş Leasing on-lent it to companies for resource efficiency investments and small-scale renewable energy projects, according to the 2021 release. At up to €100 million, the new package is up to two and a half times the size of the first, a Newsdesk calculation.

What the two sides said

Elisabetta Falcetti, the EBRD's managing director for Türkiye and the Caucasus, said in the 2026 statement: "Building on our successful cooperation with İş Leasing, this financing will help more businesses participate in Türkiye's green transition." She added that it would "also support long-term recovery in earthquake-affected regions".

Şafak Öğün, general manager of İş Leasing, said: "We are pleased to sign this agreement with the EBRD." He said the company aims to help businesses affected by the 2023 earthquakes and to finance companies across sectors, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises and women entrepreneurs, according to the release. The financing is meant for investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate action and water management. The Azerbaijani news agency Trend reported the loan on 24 October.

The EBRD has invested more than €26 billion in Türkiye since 2009, largely in the private sector, the bank said. Neither EBRD release gives a date for the first disbursement or names the provinces the 30 per cent earthquake allocation will cover.