3rd ICO Sustainable Bond Forum
The Secretary of State for the Economy and Business Support, Irene Garrido, and the Chairman of Instituto de Crédito Oficial, Pablo Zalba, opened ICO's Sustainable Bonds Forum which, for the third consecutive year, met in Madrid with issuers, investors, banks, agencies and other participants in the sector to discuss the current situation and market outlook.
The presentations and discussions held throughout the day addressed the main challenges facing the sustainable bond market. The programme included four round table discussions in which issuers, investors, banks, agencies and other participants broached the situation of a sector under constant change from each of their own perspectives.
In the last year, the sustainable bonds market has witnessed significant development with the entry of new issuers committed to the principles governing this type of operation. The funds raised under this issue method are used to finance operations which generate a positive social or environmental impact.
To date, ICO has carried out two "social bond" issues with the aim of promoting the creation or maintenance of employment through the financing of projects developed by self-employed people and SMEs in the Spanish regions with a level of income per capita below the national average.
To comply with the commitment to transparency with investors, ICO published a report containing the impact data of the second social bond operation launched in April 2016 for an amount of 500 million euros. The funds raised with this issue have financed over 11,900 business projects leading to the creation or maintenance of 63,400 jobs.
Following its commitment to the development of the Sustainable Bond market, ICO looks set to print its third Social Bond next July, if market conditions allow.