Framework for Assessing and Granting Credit to Circular Economy Initiatives by Credit Unions

Financing the transition to the circular economy (CE) requires approaches that account for the characteristics of circular business models (CBMs), including intangible assets, long-term returns, and socio-environmental impacts. This exploratory-descriptive study examines Brazilian credit-union professionals’ perceptions and proposes a framework of non-financial criteria to complement conventional credit assessment. The study combines a cross-sectional convenience survey of 262 participants with the development of 15 criteria from a literature review and their content assessment by five sector specialists using the Content Validity Coefficient (CVC) and Content Validity Index (CVI). This article analyses ten survey items concerning perceived risks and CE adoption. Among participants, 66.03% perceived economic benefits, 67.18% reported difficulty assessing benefits, and 42.37% considered staff knowledge and skills sufficient. Twelve criteria met the applied acceptance rules, with CVC values ranging from 0.720 to 0.880. The proposed items addressing Do No Significant Harm, scalability, and circular risk management were not retained in their assessed formulations. The framework provides preliminary content-validation evidence for a complementary approach to circular credit assessment. Its operational usefulness and potential effects on information asymmetry, credit decisions, and circular lending require further testing.