Banking has long been a foundational pillar of modern economies. Its earliest purpose was simple yet transformative: safeguarding people’s savings and enabling the flow of capital for productive use. Built on trust, stability, and prudent intermediation, traditional banking ensured that deposits were mobilized into investments supporting trade, enterprise growth, and national development.
Today, banks have evolved far beyond deposit-taking and lending. Modern banking incorporates digital payments, mobile banking ecosystems, credit risk modeling, wealth and asset management, cross-border transfers, microinsurance, and a growing suite of data-driven financial products. Banks now act as full financial ecosystems that shape household resilience, firm competitiveness, and national economic trajectories.
This 2025 International Day of Banks, themed “Banks Powering a Livable Planet,” emphasizes that banks are not merely financial intermediaries. They are key development actors with a central role in financing inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable growth. According to the UN, this involves financing a livable planet through climate adaptation, green industrial transitions, and nature-positive investments; closing the global SDG financing gap in low- and middle-income countries; and strengthening inclusive and resilient financial systems to ensure vulnerable communities and small enterprises are not left behind.
For developing economies, including Bangladesh, these challenges are urgent. Climate vulnerability, limited access to long-term capital, persistent gender financing gaps, and fragmented SME financial ecosystems constrain development progress. Banks, supported by regulators, development partners, and technical agencies, can play a catalytic role by shifting financial flows toward climate-smart sectors, reducing risk through better information systems, expanding outreach through digital channels, and designing products for underserved communities.
Innovision positions itself as a central actor in this transition, leveraging market systems thinking, financial sector expertise, and deep understanding of community-level constraints to support banks and financial institutions in building inclusive, climate-responsive, and development-aligned financial systems.
Strengthening Inclusive Rural Finance
Through the ACDI/VOCA Livestock Development Project, Innovision enhanced financial readiness in rural livestock value chains, segments often excluded from formal banking. By improving farm-level record keeping, enterprise and financial literacy, and structured linkages between farmers and banks, Innovision facilitated tailored financial products such as working capital loans, asset financing for livestock, and input credit. This expanded rural access to finance while supporting banks to confidently grow their lending portfolios, advancing SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 2: Zero Hunger, and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
Driving Green Finance and Climate-Responsive Banking
In the Pubali Bank Technical Assistance Project on Green Finance, Innovision embedded environmental and climate considerations into mainstream banking operations. This included environmental and social due diligence tools, internal green credit risk training, and operational frameworks for renewable energy and resource-efficient financing. These interventions strengthened banks’ capacity to finance green industries, aligning with national climate priorities and global sustainability standards, directly advancing SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 13: Climate Action while opening new business opportunities in emerging green markets.
Expanding Climate Resilience Through Microinsurance
Through the Expanding Climate Resilience Through Microinsurance (BMMDP) Project, Innovision supported the design and operationalization of climate-responsive microinsurance products for smallholders facing shocks such as livestock mortality and income volatility. By fostering collaboration between insurers, MFIs, and local value chain actors, Innovision contributed to a more integrated risk-management ecosystem. Banks benefit from more stable borrower cash flows, reduced credit risk, and opportunities to link credit and insurance products. This work aligns with SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 13: Climate Action, strengthening social protection for low-income communities.
Advancing Gender-Responsive Finance and Women’s Enterprise Growth
In the World Bank We-Fi Project, Innovision helped banks integrate gender-responsive financing practices. This included refining credit assessment tools for women-led MSMEs, designing personalized financial products, strengthening credit pipelines, and institutionalizing sex-disaggregated data systems. By addressing systemic constraints such as limited collateral, restricted mobility, and lower asset ownership, Innovision supported banks in reaching women entrepreneurs, a traditionally underserved high-potential client segment, advancing SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth while promoting inclusive financial growth.
Across these initiatives, Innovision translates SDG priorities into operational strategies for banks through improved due diligence, product development, market assessments, capacity building, and inclusive business models. As financial systems navigate climate risks, digital transformation, and inclusion gaps, the banking sector’s role continues to expand. The message of the 2025 International Day of Banks is clear: a livable planet and equitable global economy require financial institutions that embed sustainability, inclusion, and resilience into the core of their business models.
Innovision shows how this transformation can be achieved. By linking global development priorities with local financial realities, we support banks in strengthening competitiveness while advancing national development objectives, paving the way for a future where banks serve markets, empower people, protect the planet, and drive equitable growth.
Author: Yeasir Arafat Tuhin, an Associate in the Inclusive Financia Solutions (IFS) Portfolio at Innovision Consulting.