New Resource Bank

SF based, New Resource Bank:

... (is) a recently launched commercial bank based in San Francisco. NRB is one of a small number of community banks focusing on the needs of sustainably-minded businesses.

The bank's origins go back about two and a half years, when Peter Liu, the bank's founder and vice chairman, found himself among a group of individuals being asked by California Treasurer Phil Angelides to help implement the state's Green Wave initiative, which called on the state's two large public pension funds -- the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) -- to invest $1.5 billion in clean technologies and environmentally responsible companies.

... a developer of small local renewable energy projects might have trouble getting funding from conventional banks, or even local community banks. "They may understand real estate, but they don't understand that there are other things that can have cash flow, like energy projects," says Liu. "These can have a similar credit profile as real estate, so if a banker took the time to understand the security and soundness of the project, it's more likely to get financed than comparing it to land or a house or apartment." The same is true for producers of organic meat and produce, which cost more to produce but which garner higher prices in the marketplace. Bankers may miss the big picture -- seeing only the higher-cost side of the equation and basing their calculations accordingly.

... Time will tell, of course, but Liu and his colleagues are banking on the rising interest among consumers and businesses in products and services with green values. Banking in particular has been in need of some fresh ideas given the growing industry consolidation, with a handful of big banks dominating the scene and standardizing their services -- often leaving behind those needing tailor-made services.

New Resource Bank's official opening is November 14 (when the full complement of online banking services will debut), but last week at the Solar Power 2006 conference in San Jose, Calif., Liu announced the bank's first green financial product: a partnership with solar panel maker SunPower Corp. that will allow customers to more easily finance residential solar energy installations. (Robert Lorenzini, a co-founder of SunPower, is an investor in the bank.) Liu believes the customized home-equity lending, combined with tax credits, can make solar affordable to many California residents for whom it is currently out of reach.