Featured

As the first European bank to have had its decarbonisation trajectory SBTi-validated and other pioneering steps, La Banque Postale can credibly claim to ’walk the talk’.

Nationale-Nederlanden Bank (NN Bank) on 10 May issued the first Dutch green covered bond, reinforcing the group’s ESG drive, including the establishment in 2020 of Woonnu, a mortgage provider aimed at incentivising sustainable living. Sustainabonds’ Neil Day discussed the varied dimensions of the bank’s sustainability strategy with NN Bank’s Niek Allon, head of treasury, Sander Roling, funding manager, and Patricia Plass, head of ESG office and CEO of Woonnu.

A year on from the first conversion of an issuer’s conventional bonds into green bonds, by Gecina, Crédit Agricole CIB hosted a roundtable to discuss such innovative exercises and to pioneer liability management strategies that enable issuers to accelerate their transition to sustainable finance.

Public sector issuers are at the forefront of green and social bond markets as they seek to support society in transitioning, justly, to a sustainable future. Demand is buoyant, supported by regulatory developments, but challenges remain, notably in determining appropriate standards on the social side. Sustainabonds gathered leading players to tackle the key issues facing the sector in a roundtable discussion finalised in mid-February.

Loans to local government bodies large and small are behind SFIL’s green bond issuance, and the French group anticipates complementing this with social lending, according to CEO Philippe Mills and colleagues.

Issuers lacking projects appropriate to use-of-proceeds green bonds but with clear sustainability targets and transition strategies are increasingly finding sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) a viable alternative for reflecting their ESG ambitions in the capital markets. In this special report, sponsored by ABN AMRO, Sustainabonds’ Neil Day explores the surge in issuance and finds out what issuers need to be doing to win over investors.

Nederlandse Gasunie in October launched the first sustainability-linked bond (SLB) from the European gas transmission sector, a €300m 15 year deal with methane and Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction targets. Here, Gea Paas Broekman and Loek Caris at Gasunie, and Dick Ligthart and Ton Roeten at sustainability structuring advisor ABN AMRO, discuss how the instrument furthers the Dutch company’s sustainability objectives and transition into an energy infrastructure company.

A year on from SpareBank 1 Østlandet’s green bond debut, Karoline Bakka Hjertø, head of sustainability, and Runar Hauge, portfolio manager, treasury, spoke to Sustainabonds’ Neil Day about how the bank is furthering its ESG ambitions. Eivind Hegelstad, CFO and investor relations, SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt — the SpareBank 1 banks’ joint covered bond-issuing specialist entity — joined the pair to share insights into green mortgages and the related funding strategy.