From the excellent World Changing blog:

New Resource Bank

Sarah Rich
November 15, 2006

Yesterday in San Francisco, a new kind of bank opened its doors. New Resource Bank is a small commercial bank established with the sole mission of serving the particular needs of green entrepreneurs and sustainable businesses. Founder and vice-chairman, Peter Liu, has a career history at the top levels of large, global banks Credit Suisse and Chase Manhattan. He's joined on staff and amongst the investor circle by other heavy-hitters in the banking world who are seeing an opportunity in the tremendous and growing wave of green enterprise, especially in California.

Joel Makower recently wrote about the Bank at his blog, sharing a bit of conversation he had with Liu prior to the bank's opening about the circumstances that motivated the beginning of this endeavor a few years ago.

While venture capitalist and pension funds were investing untold millions in clean and green technologies, there was little action from banks, the most conservative end of the capital chain. "Oftentimes there are boxes that banks put things in, and they haven't created a box for 'organic' or 'renewable,' where they can understand the credit needs of these businesses," Liu recently told me.

For example, he explained, 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.