Lending, Products, and Institutional Readiness

A three-part webinar series

Background

The ICA-AP Committee on Credit and Banking (ICCB) serves as the regional platform for cooperative banks, credit unions, savings and credit cooperatives, and apex federations to exchange practice, build capacity, and shape a common voice on cooperative financial services.

Recent work of the Committee has converged on the practical concerns of member institutions: digital transformation, governance reform, member-focused services, and operational resilience. Climate-aligned and green finance is the next natural theme, and one that connects directly to almost every cooperative bank’s existing portfolio, through agriculture, MSMEs, housing, transport, and rural livelihoods.

Globally, central banks, regulators, and refinance institutions are moving rapidly toward green finance frameworks. Cooperative banks in the Asia-Pacific cannot afford to be late entrants. At the same time, frameworks designed for large commercial banks rarely fit cooperative realities. Member institutions need approaches grounded in the lives of small farmers, micro-enterprises, women-led collectives, and local communities: the constituencies that cooperative banking exists to serve.

Rationale

Three observations shape the design of this series, and are particularly evident in the first session on agricultural and rural finance.

Existing lending is already climate relevant, but rarely structured as such

Much of what cooperative banks already finance, including irrigation, dairy, fisheries, small enterprises, and rural housing, is directly climate relevant. It is rarely framed, priced, or reported as green finance. Reframing existing activity through a climate resilience lens unlocks access to refinance lines, partial guarantees, and technical assistance increasingly available from national development banks and multilateral institutions, without asking cooperative banks to enter unfamiliar territory.

Members are beginning to ask for new products

Solar pumps, rooftop solar, electric two and three wheelers, energy efficient housing, and equipment for waste and recycling enterprises are entering the demand pipeline of cooperative bank members across the region. Cooperative banks that move early will deepen member relationships and capture the next decade of household and small enterprise borrowing.

Climate exposure is a real portfolio risk that boards must govern

Climate stress, whether drought, flood, heat, or shifting cropping patterns, is no longer a long-term abstraction. It is showing up in agriculture loan books today. Boards and senior management need a working understanding of how to govern this risk, without importing the heavy ESG reporting machinery designed for listed companies. A right-sized approach is both possible and overdue.

Objective of Webinar

To equip cooperative banks, credit unions, and savings and credit cooperatives in the Asia Pacific with practical, implementable approaches to green and climate resilient finance, across three layers:

• Sector lending, making existing agriculture and rural finance climate smart
• New products, designing and delivering green loan products that members demand
• Institutional readiness, including governance, risk, capacity, and reporting to support this work credibly

The series consciously prioritises peer learning, concrete examples, and walk away tools over conceptual or regulatory discourse.

Target Audience

• Chief Executive Officers, General Managers, and senior credit officers of cooperative banks
• Board members and directors with oversight of credit, risk, or audit
• Heads of business verticals such as agriculture, MSME, housing, and retail
• Officers of federations and apex bodies responsible for member capacity building
• Branch managers and field officers
• Regulators, refinance institutions, and policy bodies engaged with the cooperative sector
• Researchers

Indicative reach: 60 to 70 participants, drawn from cooperative institutions across 15 to 20 countries.

Session 1 : Financing Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods

Focus and Themes

Most cooperative banks in the region already lend to agriculture, dairy, fisheries, and rural MSMEs. This session does not ask them to start something new. It reframes existing practice through a climate-resilience lens, surfacing what changes in product structure, appraisal, and portfolio management make this lending more durable for both the institution and the member.

Themes covered:

• Lending for drip and micro-irrigation and water-saving on-farm technologies
• Solar pump and farm mechanisation finance, including subsidy-linked product structures
• Adjustments to credit appraisal for climate-exposed crops, regions, and seasons
• Group lending and federation models: producer organisations, dairy unions, fisheries cooperatives
• Portfolio quality and managing loan stress in climate-affected seasons
• Bundling extension support, crop insurance, and credit

Participants leave with adapted loan product structures they can apply and a set of revised appraisal questions to add to existing agricultural loan documentation.

Indicative Agenda

For Session 1, two anchor practitioners will present, one from a cooperative banking perspective and one from a refinance and policy perspective. The session is extended to 75 minutes to accommodate both presentations in full.

Session Format

The webinar runs for 60 minutes in a consistent format:

• One anchor practitioner per session. A cooperative banker or federation officer who has actually done this work, presenting for 25 minutes with concrete numbers, product structures, and lessons learned.
• Brief context-setting by the Committee. Five minutes to frame why this session matters now.
• Facilitated Q and A. Fifteen minutes structured to surface peer experience from across the region, not only questions to the speaker.
• Reflections from the Regional Director. A short closing reflection connecting the session to the broader committee work plan and regional priority.
• The session will be recorded and made available on ICA-AP channels for members who could not attend live.

Expected Outcomes

• Participants gain a working understanding of how to reframe existing agricultural lending through a climate resilience lens
• Each participating institution identifies at least one lending product or appraisal practice it can review or adapt after the session
• Inputs from participant discussion are used to refine the focus of Session 2 (Designing Green Loan Products for Members)

Speakers

Dr. Justin Bomda (Cameroon) holds an Engineering Degree in Agricultural Economics (University of Dschang, 1985), a Master’s in Economic Development and Planning (IDEP- Senegal, 1988), and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics with a Finance major (University of Hohenheim-Germany, 1998). He began his career as a Studies Engineer at Cameroon’s Ministry of Agriculture and has consulted for the World Bank, FAO, IFAD, EU, KfW, GIZ, and private banks. He served as Executive Director of ADAF (1999–2018) and has been Managing Director/CEO of MUFID UNION since 2019, leading a cooperative network serving over one million people through 122 branches across Cameroon. He sits on the ICBA Board, lectures in finance and banking at the Catholic University of Central Africa, and specializes in inclusive and agricultural finance, cooperative development, and management. Bilingual in French and English.

Bhima Subrahmanyam has been associated with ICBA of ICA since October 2019 in his capacity as its elected President. He is also associated with National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB), since 1982 but as CEO/Managing Director of NAFSCOB since 1990. Prior to NAFSCOB, Bhima has been associated with IIM, Ahmedabad, Space Applications Centre of ISRO and NIRD in India. He has over 50 years of experience in the areas of Rural communication, Rural Development, Agricultural Credit, Cooperatives, Banking etc. He is author of more than 100 Articles, Research Papers, Occasional papers etc. in the above areas which include Rural savings mobilisation. He has been instrumental in formulating Risk Management Policy, AML, Information Technology Security Policy, Human Resource policy for banks, Fraud Monitoring, Cyber Security guidelines, Regulation and Sustainability of Cooperative Banks, impact of Prudential norms on cooperative banks, Governance Practices, Operational Manuals for Cooperative Banks etc. He has been closely associated with many international organizations. The membership of ICBA during his tenure went up to 58 institutions from 39 countries. An International Symposium on CFIs has been organised at UN, New York under his presidentship in May 2026.

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