Tech Mahindra Unveils AI-Powered Platform for Green Finance Compliance

Banks willing to lend conscientiously may have just received significant help. Indian technology major Tech Mahindra (TECHM) has introduced a new platform ‘i.GreenFinance’ which seeks to help banks and lenders negotiate the complex world of green and sustainability-linked finance with the help of artificial intelligence. IT Brief Asia+1

i.GreenFinance is not just another fintech tool. Developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the tool leverages cloud computing and generative AI to automate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) data collection, scoring, reporting, and compliance – from loan origination to disbursement and post-finance usage tracking.

This will require real-time auditing, audit-ready reports, and, most important of all, knowing whether green money is actually being used for green projects. IT Brief Asia+1

What’s great (and, frankly, somewhat overdue) is how this addresses one of the biggest barriers to sustainable finance: unreliable ESG data and inconsistent regulation.

Ahluwalia, chief sustainability officer at Tech Mahindra, said large-scale green lending has long been faltering due to the absence of globally agreed environmental, social and governance metrics and fragmented data. i.Green Finance promises to solve this problem through standardized assessment of ESG criteria – enabling lenders, at least in theory, to confidently scale green portfolios across regions. IT Brief Asia+1

The timing couldn’t be better. As more countries take steps to tighten disclosure laws and investor pressure for improved environmental accountability increases, AI-based ESG tools are becoming more important.

Artificial intelligence has become a major player in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting – hailed for automating data as well as providing quick compliance checks against ever-changing regulations, according to one analysis. ME+1 Consulting

Of course, not everything is rainbows and sunshine. But experts are quick to warn that while AI can enhance ESG and sustainability assessments, it is only as good as the data that feeds it – and whether you can trust that underlying data can depend largely on how transparent companies are about their AI models and how well they can provide sound governance.

Some scientific research even warns of “energy cost trade-offs” and the difficulty of imposing ethical oversight when automating sustainability decisions. Inrat+2arXiv+2

But I still have to ask: Creating something like i.GreenFinance certainly seems like a hugely bullish bet on tomorrow’s world, where banks don’t just lend — they invest — with real accountability.

If other lenders follow this model, green finance may no longer be a niche area – and may become the new norm.