Green

The EMF-ECBC launched a project to create an energy efficient mortgage today (Tuesday) that it said could pave the way for broader take-up of green covered bonds, after Berlin Hyp yesterday inaugurated a combined Pfandbrief and senior green programme with a Eu500m seven year unsecured deal.

Berlin Hyp sold the first green covered bond today (Monday), attracting almost Eu2bn of orders for a Eu500m seven year issue, with bankers suggesting the deal printed in line with where a conventional Pfandbrief would have priced while attracting new investors to the paper.

DNB on Wednesday became the first commercial bank from the Nordic region to sell a green bond, issuing a Nkr1bn (Eu115m) five year deal whose proceeds are earmarked for financing renewable energy projects.

MünchenerHyp issued the first sustainable covered bond today (Wednesday), a Eu300m five year deal that tapped into growing interest in SRI bonds and which the issuer’s head of treasury and an investor who participated in the transaction said will hopefully be the first of many.

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.

A group seeking bond market solutions to help raise finance for projects that address climate change, the Climate Bonds Initiative, is advocating the creation of renewable energy covered bonds and has called for existing covered bond legislation to be amended to encompass renewable energy assets.