Focus on sustainability: NRW.BANK issues Social Bond to finance projects for housing, economy and municipalities

01 July 2020

NRW.BANK expands its range of instruments in the sustainability bond segment and is the first German promotional bank to issue a EUR 1 billion social bond. The NRW.BANK.Social Bond will be used to refinance promotional projects in North Rhine-Westphalia that have a positive impact on society and serve, for instance, to secure and create jobs. The new bond was more than three times oversubscribed.


“For NRW.BANK, promoting sustainable development in North Rhine-Westphalia is of enormous importance. We aim to reconcile economic objectives with environmental and social responsibility,” says Michael Stölting, member of the Managing Board of NRW.BANK. “The NRW.BANK.Social Bond complements our NRW.BANK.Green Bond as an instrument to support promotional projects in our federal state, which is characterised by structural change.”

The NRW.BANK.Social Bond mainly refinances projects aimed at promoting private home ownership (especially for families) the protection and creation of jobs as well as the support of municipalities, e.g. in the field of school education. The bond thus complies with the ICMA Social Bond Principles. The effectiveness of the investments is assessed by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Both the Social and Green Bond’s annual reporting is included in the NRW.BANK Sustainability Report.

Most of the investors in the bond come from Germany, Switzerland, France, Skandinavia, Italy and The Netherlands – over 40 percent have a focus on ESG. The issue was lead-managed by Credit Agricole CIB, DekaBank, HSBC and NatWestMarkets. The bond is listed in Düsseldorf and on the Green Exchange of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange under ISIN: DE000NWB0AK3. The minimum denomination is 1,000 euros.

NRW.BANK was the first German promotional bank to issue a Green Bond in 2013. The experience gained in this context is incorporated into the new NRW.BANK.Social Bond, with which the promotional bank for North Rhine-Westphalia has committed itself to five United Nations objectives for sustainable development: (1) No Poverty; (4) Quality Education; (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth; (10) Reduced Inequality and (11) Sustainable Cities and Communities. Unlike the Green Bond, the Social Bond’s asset pool consists of projects from the years 2017 to 2019, which were promoted with products such as NRW.BANK.Wohneigentum, NRW.BANK.Universalkredit or NRW.BANK.Gute Schule 2020.

For more information on the NRW.BANK.Social Bond, visit www.nrwbank.de/socialbond. To learn more about sustainability at NRW.BANK, see www.nrwbank.de/sustainability.

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About NRW.BANK

NRW.BANK is the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Its mission is to support its owner – the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – in the completion of its structural and economic policy tasks. In its three promotional fields “Economy”, “Housing” and “Infrastructure/Municipalities”, NRW.BANK uses a wide range of promotion tools – from low-interest promotion loans to equity financing to advisory services. It cooperates with all banks and savings banks based in NRW on a competition-neutral basis. NRW.BANK takes into account the existing offers by the Federal Government, the North Rhine-Westphalian government and the European Union in the arrangement of its promotion.

Contact:

Caroline Gesatzki
Press Officer
Tel.: +49 211 91741 - 1847
Fax: +49 211 91741 - 1260
E-Mail: caroline.gesatzki@nrwbank.de

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