Despite the presence of the term ‘investment’ in its title, investment bank is not truly a bank in that sense. The institution does not offer banking services such as deposit, loan, and foreign exchange. Its major functions include issuance and underwriting of company securities, business mergers and acquisitions, and innovative services. It employs professional knowledge and connections to help industry design fund-raising commodities and issue them in the market to attract investors. In essence, an investment bank acts like middleman (intermediary agency), serving as a go-between. They work as matchmakers, just like stock exchanges, accelerators, and even Green Impact Academy.
The green investment bank people are talking about nowadays primarily refers to the world’s first Green Investment Bank formed by the British government using public funds a while ago. Similar to investment banks, as an intermediary agency, the government is effectively the dealer. It takes on the role of a catalyst and is charged with the role of stimulating private capital and boosting market efficiency. The reason why it is called the Green Investment Bank is because it only invests in green infrastructural projects such as OWP, solar power, energy conservation and energy efficiency, biomass energy, and the likes.
The Green Investment Bank of UK came up with an entire set of green investment risk assessment which primarily assesses whether the investment project in question complies with the principle of sustainable green development. The bank was sold to the Macquarie Group in 2017 and is being managed by the group’s private equity department.