Despite strong showings from peers including BNP Paribas and Citi, HSBC’s strength in sustainable finance is deep rooted and hard to match. Jonathan Drew’s team lifts this award for the fourth consecutive year.
It’s not just the numbers, although they are compelling. HSBC ranks first for green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bond issues in Apac. It’s equally strong on sustainability-linked lending. But it’s more about the sense of leadership and this manifests itself in several ways.
One is in new ideas, structures and deals: the world’s first government global MTN programme dedicated to green bond issuances (Hong Kong SAR); the first transition bonds aligned to the ICMA Climate Transition Finance Handbook (Bank of China HK); the first green socially responsible investment Sukuk in Asean (Leader Energy); the first dollar Covid bond from a non-government entity in Asia (Kookmin); and the first Covid bond from a public-sector issuer in Asia (Republic of Indonesia).
Another is the very structure of these markets. HSBC helped to build the market on sustainability-linked loans, green loans and green trade facilities; it helps governments and regulators write the rule books before they even start. During our year in review more and more issuers, from Indian logistics to Australian higher education, were brought into the low carbon transition story through HSBC’s work. For example, it launched a sustainable trade instruments framework in October 2020 and completed the trade of Asia’s first sustainability-linked derivative product, a $100 million environmental, social and governance criteria-linked cross-currency swap for Hana Financial Investment.
And HSBC also leads with ideas. It is commonplace now for pitches in this category to begin with an acknowledgement that there needs to be a grown-up conversation about greening in Asia, that people can’t go from brown to green in an instant in this coal-reliant continent and that transition is therefore the main point. But HSBC has been saying it for longer and making it happen for longer than anyone else.
