News

DKB sold a four times subscribed €500m five year “blue” social Pfandbrief focused on water and waste water services on Wednesday, with the Eurosystem and SRI investors among those helping the German issuer achieve an “outstanding” deal, according to its head of funding and IR.

Berlin Hyp issued its first green bond in senior preferred format and eighth overall on Monday, a €500m no-grow 10 year deal that attracted more than €1.2bn of demand, and head of funding and IR Bodo Winkler said the issuer had reached the point where its issuance was almost “self-explanatory”.

Rabobank sold its first green senior non-preferred bond last week, a €750m seven year priced some 3bp through fair value, with the deal’s impressive outcome attributed largely to its green nature. The Dutch cooperative has also sought to make its transaction the first aligned with the latest draft of the EU Green Bond Standard.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt sold its first green covered bond on 17 October, a €500m seven year trade that inaugurates the first green and sustainability bond framework from a Norwegian bank, which takes in social activity in emerging markets, and a new green mortgage highlighted by an official at the issuer.

The only Fitch-rated covered bonds for which any ESG factor is positively credit-relevant are those of Aegon Bank and Panama’s Banco La Hipotecaria, according to the rating agency, which is disclosing “ESG relevancy scores” for credit ratings in a bid to increase transparency but found little impact across the asset class.

ING Bank Hipoteczny hopes to launch a debut euro benchmark covered bond in green format in the first half of 2020, after having inaugurated its covered bond programme with an upsized PLN400m green bond, which its CEO said will help move Poland’s housing sector forward in a green direction.

SR-Boligkreditt inaugurated a green bond framework with the first negative-yielding euro benchmark covered bond from the Nordics on Tuesday, while Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt is set to follow with a green covered bond debut off the first Norwegian framework also targeting social goals.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg inaugurated a social bond framework on 19 September, bringing its total sustainable bond issuance including green bonds to €3.7bn with a €500m senior non-preferred trade. The debut is the first social bond to be assessed against new ISS-oekom ESG KPIs for their contribution to related SDGs.