The facility represents Standard Chartered’s inaugural repo financing transaction explicitly tied to women’s economic empowerment. By linking a high-volume treasury liquidity tool directly to positive social impact, the transaction establishes a scalable blueprint for deploying capital markets infrastructure toward financial inclusion and female entrepreneurship.

The transaction is structured under QNB Türkiye’s comprehensive Sustainable Finance and Product Framework. Proceeds from the facility will directly power QNB Türkiye’s lending program targeting eligible women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the country.

Under the framework’s eligibility criteria, targeted businesses must demonstrate meaningful female leadership, defined through specific corporate governance metrics:

Governance Alignment: Significant female equity holdings combined with active management representation.

By funneling international capital into these qualified enterprises, the facility aims to address structural capital access gaps facing women entrepreneurs, who serve as pivotal drivers of job creation, innovation, and long-term economic development across Türkiye.

“We are always looking at how we can evolve traditional financing structures to deliver greater impact for our clients and the communities they serve,” stated Caroline Eber-Ittel, CEO France and head of coverage Europe at Standard Chartered. “This transaction demonstrates how capital markets solutions can be harnessed to support women’s economic empowerment while meeting our clients’ funding and liquidity objectives. We’re proud to partner with QNB Türkiye on a transaction that not only breaks new ground for the Bank but also helps expand opportunities for women-led businesses across Türkiye.”

Repurchase agreements have historically operated as short-term liquidity, collateral, and funding mechanisms for institutional banking balance sheets .

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