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ESG in Structured Finance in Latin America: From Compliance Exercise to Structuring Tool

08 May 2026 by Estrella & Tupete, Abogados Dominican Republic

ESG criteria have evolved from reputational addenda into a determining factor in the structuring, pricing and viability of complex financings across Latin America. Yet their widespread adoption does not guarantee their effectiveness: the difference between a substantive ESG instrument and a merely formal one lies, in large part, in how ESG is integrated into a transaction's contractual architecture. The regional debate has moved past whether ESG criteria should be incorporated - they should - to the harder question of how to do so in a way that drives real change.