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Ahead of 150th birthday celebrations on 8 May marked by a gift of saplings to its home city, Berlin Hyp tightened its pioneering green bond framework and revealed an increasing positive environmental impact from the programme.

Green bonds backed by mortgages might seem a natural source of supply from banks. However, a lack of joined-up data is forcing banks to be creative in carving out pools of energy efficient loans. Neil Day explores the building blocks for a bigger market with ABN AMRO’s Joop Hessels.

Those that have broken new ground in sustainable bonds say they have been vindicated by the “unstoppable” movement, while issuance has catalysed internal change as well as attracting new investors. And hopes for the future are high. Tom Revell reports from LBBW’s European Covered Bond Forum in Mainz on 1 March.

The German banking industry can boast pioneers of the green bond market, but overall the country lags its peers. What lessons can financial institutions in general learn about making the transition to sustainability from the experience of Europe’s largest economy?

Berlin Hyp’s leadership in the green bond market was recognised in multiple categories by GlobalCapital in its Sustainable & Responsible Capital Markets Awards 2017 on 5 September, as the German lender took home three honours.

Six years after the germination of the idea, the first Green Pfandbrief is coming to fruition thanks to careful nurturing by Berlin Hyp and its partners. Here, they discuss the credentials and potential of an investment that promises to be sustainable in more than one sense of the word.

Münchener Hypothekenbank eG (MünchenerHyp) on 8 September unveiled plans for the first ESG covered bond. In this special sponsored feature, those involved in the project consider an ESG Pfandbrief against the backdrop of sustainable investment and explore how it might fit into wider SRI developments in the bond markets.

With investors showing a growing interest in SRI, the topic has become one for covered bonds, and in September Münchener Hypothekenbank launched the first benchmark issue to carry a sustainability rating. Here, Franz Rudolf, head of financials credit research at UniCredit, explores what the relevant rating agencies are looking for.