NIB extends its cooperation with green bond arrangers

NIB is extending its cooperation with arrangers for green bonds to include Crédit Agricole CIB, Danske Bank, HSBC and Swedbank. The cooperation, which now comprises a total of seven banks whose environmental processes align, is helping NIB to develop and support green financing.

NIB has allocated EUR 500 million for investments in green bonds issued by companies and municipalities in the Nordic–Baltic region. The cooperation with arranging banks allows NIB to act faster in the green bond market and, if needed, to purchase green bonds before doing its own due diligence.

“With the arranging banks, NIB has discussed their green bond issuance policies, procedures and focus. This allows us to cooperate better and, when time for pre-evaluation is limited, to trust that we can buy a green bond and assess it afterwards”, says Lars Eibeholm, Head of Treasury at NIB.

As a rule, NIB always evaluates the environmental impact of its investments, but in some cases there might be time constraints in the green bond market. Thus, it is important that arrangers with whom NIB cooperates know what purpose the bond proceeds are being used for and whether the issuance would be eligible for NIB to invest in.

NIB and the arranging banks have therefore discussed their respective green bond issuing policies, as well as their procedures and their awareness of NIB’s mandate.

“NIB’s long experience of evaluating the environmental impact of its investments will also benefit the assessment of projects financed by NIB-purchased green bonds”, says Thomas Wrangdahl, Head of Lending at NIB.

NIB is a member of the Green Bond Principles Executive Committee, a group within the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA).

Mr Ulrik Ross, Global Head of Public Sector and Sustainable Financing, Debt Capital Markets, at HSBC, says: “HSBC is honoured to join this cooperative green bond alliance, supporting NIB in being a catalyst for environmental financing solutions. We will work closely with NIB in aligning their environmental investment and financing activities with its already well advanced green bond issuance strategy.”

“Danske Bank believes that joint standards are crucial to support the development of the green bond market. We welcome this initiative from NIB, where banks work in conjunction with NIB to deliver transparency for investors and issuers”, says Mr Samu Slotte, Head of SSA Origination at Danske Bank.

Mr. Stephen Martin, Head of DCM & Syndicate, from Swedbank, says: “NIB sits amongst the vanguard of issuers setting the highest industry standards for sustainable financing. At Swedbank, we too share the core value that the needs of the present must never detract from the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and so we are both honoured and delighted to cooperate with NIB in the area of green and sustainability financing.”

Mr Tanguy Claquin, Head of Sustainable Banking, at Crédit Agricole CIB, says: “We are extremely proud to be a long-standing partner of the Nordic Investment Bank in green bonds. Our teams share the same vision for this market, and we are very happy to further develop our relationship in the Nordic countries.”

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For more information on NIB buying green bonds as a new way to finance environmental projects, please click here.

For further information, please contact

Mr Thomas Wrangdahl, First Vice-President, Head of Lending at NIB, at +358 10 618 0226, mixIt(‘thomas.w’,’rangdahl’,’n’,’ib.int’,”,’1522310197443-1′);thomas.wrangdahl (at) nib.int

Mr Lars Eibeholm, Vice-President, Head of Treasury at NIB, at +358 10 618 0400, mixIt(‘l’,’ars.eibeholm’,’nib.in’,’t’,”,’1522310197443-2′);lars.eibeholm (at) nib.int

Mr Jens Hellerup, Head of Funding and Investor Relations, at +358 961 811 401, mixIt(‘jens.hellerup’,”,’ni’,’b.int’,”,’1522310197443-3′);jens.hellerup (at) nib.int