Lloyds Bank has tapped into the current enthusiasm for green bonds with its own Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) bond. As Euromoney went to press, the UK bank issued a £250 million bond based on a defined set of eligible assets that underpin green bonds but going one step further by funding activities that deliver social benefits beyond environmental.
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| This is real – it isn’t going away. Increasingly large fund managers will have larger allocations for ethical investments James Garvey, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking |
“There has been an upsurge in interest in responsible investing,” says James Garvey, managing director capital markets and portfolio management at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. “There is a growing demand for socially responsible investments, which has predominantly materialised in green bonds to date.”
The ESG bond is targeted at four pools of assets. These include: agricultural renewables (lending for energy efficiency), loans for healthcare such as care homes, an SME sponsor programme and lending to areas associated with deprivation defined by postcode.
The initiative is part of Lloyds’ Helping Britain Prosper plan, under which the bank committed to grow net lending to SMEs by £1 billion a year.
