According to Reuters. the IFC is today pricing their second $1 billion green bond. Coupon is 0.625% (4 basis points over US Treasury bonds).
Lead managers are SEB, Credit Agricole CIB, Citi and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
A source at the IFC has told us they're planning to issue some $3.2 billion of a green and "SRI" bonds during their current financial year - roughly 20% of IFC's planned bond issuance for the year.
There are roughly $9 billion of "labelled" climate and green bonds outstanding at the moment, that's a big step up. That will be a big contribution to growing this important market.
Bond markets, including thematic markets, are generally started with public sector issuance at scale. We're on record as calling for development banks, who have excellent portfolios of climate related projects, to expand climate bonds and green bonds issuance. This would support the growth of a green market by showing others how to do it, helping to set standards, and contributing to liquidity. Green labelling helps.
In our report with HSBC earlier this year we estimated a global total of $346 billion of bonds related to climate change; but many of these require research to locate, slowing down the investor shift.
The easier it is for investors to find climate related bonds, in particular investment grade bonds, the more likely they are to invest; especially the $22.5 trillion worth of investors who are already in the record as saying climate change is a huge challenge for global economies.
Bravo IFC!
