Financing Nature: When a Bank’s Impact Runs Through Its Clients

With great impact comes great responsibility. Across their value chains, companies play a critical role in safeguarding and restoring the nature and biodiversity on which we all depend. This series features international companies setting the pace. Companies that are part of the solution. This edition highlights the international Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, BBVA, and its efforts. 

For a bank, biodiversity poses a fundamentally different challenge than for most other industries. The direct footprint of financial operations is limited. The real impact on nature happens elsewhere through the activities that the bank finances. 

As Jaime Marin Otero, Head of Sustainable Business for Institutional, Commercial & Retail Clients at BBVA, puts it: 

“As a bank, our biodiversity impact does not come from our own operations. It happens mainly through our clients.” 

That insight shapes BBVA’s approach. Biodiversity is not treated as a separate environmental topic, but as a factor already influencing economic resilience and long-term value creation across sectors. 

“We don’t see biodiversity as an isolated environmental issue. Nature loss, water stress and soil degradation are already affecting our clients in very concrete ways,” as Jaime Marin Otero explains. 

From environmental concern to financial reality 

Rather than starting with abstract targets, BBVA’s approach begins with understanding how companies depend on nature and how those dependencies translate into financial risk and opportunity. 

“Our strategy is based on understanding both how our clients depend on nature and how they impact it, so that we can support them in building more resilient business models.” 

This logic is embedded in BBVA’s Environmental and Social Framework, which guides how the bank identifies, assesses and manages activities with high environmental and social impacts, including ecosystems, land use and water. 

“These frameworks are complemented by clear exclusions and restrictions for activities with high biodiversity impacts, such as deforestation, conversion of high-value ecosystems or projects affecting protected or critical habitats.” 

Sector insight instead of generic solutions  

Because biodiversity plays out differently across industries, BBVA emphasises sector-specific understanding rather than one-size-fits-all commitments. 

“We are developing sectoral frameworks to better understand how different industries interact with nature, and where their main risks and dependencies are,” Jaime Marin Otero explains. 

These perspectives support decisions on acceptable, restricted and excluded activities. Particularly where deforestation, land-use change or impacts on protected ecosystems are involved. They also underpin dialogue with clients navigating expanding regulatory expectations under CSRD and emerging approaches such as TNFD. 

How biodiversity enters daily banking practice 

In practice, biodiversity considerations increasingly surface in everyday banking activities. Not as a standalone process, but as part of client engagement and risk assessment. 

“Issues like water availability, land use, soil quality and supply-chain exposure are becoming a more natural part of our conversations with clients.” 

Water has particularly become a strategically important focus area. 

“Water-related risks are already material for many sectors and geographies, and they have direct implications for financial performance.” 

These insights are gradually reflected in financing structures and incentives. 

“Biodiversity is not a separate project for us. It is increasingly part of how we assess risks and opportunities across our portfolio.” 

Why timing matters and scale amplifies risk  

For a bank of BBVA’s scale, biodiversity risks are not distant or theoretical. BBVA operates across more than 25 markets, serves over 77 million customers, and finances activities spanning agriculture, infrastructure, industry and urban development. This global reach means that nature-related pressures accumulate across geographies and sectors rather than appearing as isolated issues. 

According to Jaime Marin Otero, this scale makes timing critical. 

“At some point, it became clear that you cannot talk about transition without talking about nature.” 

Scientific evidence, client realities and regulation have converged in a way that makes nature increasingly relevant for long-term financial stability. For a large, internationally active bank, waiting would mean allowing risks linked to water stress, land degradation and ecosystem loss to compound quietly within portfolios. 

“By integrating biodiversity into its broader transition and sustainability strategy, BBVA aims to ensure that capital allocation supports long-term resilience. Both for natural systems and for the economies that depend on them”, explains Marin Otero.

Benefits and unresolved challenges  

For clients, the benefits include a clearer understanding of operational and regulatory risks, improved preparedness for disclosure requirements and better access to transition finance. For the bank, it strengthens risk anticipation, client dialogue and long-term resilience. 

At the same time, challenges remain. 

“Nature is much more complex than climate. Impacts are local, data availability is limited, and methodologies are still evolving.” 

A pragmatic starting point 

Despite that complexity, Marin Otero’s advice is clear: 

“Don’t wait for perfect data or fully developed methodologies. Start by understanding your dependencies on nature.” 

And above all: 

“Biodiversity needs to be treated as a strategic topic, not as an environmental add-on.”