ICO consolidates its leadership as an issuer of sustainable bonds in international markets

20 June 2022

  • 6th ICO Sustainable Bond Forum, organized by ICO in collaboration with BBVA, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, ING and Santander, has brought together international investors and issuers in Madrid to analyse the present and future of green, social and sustainable bond markets
  • ICO has become a leading issuer in the international sustainable bond markets after accumulating a total of 12 bond issues worth 6.05 billion Euros
  • Through sustainable bond issues, ICO promotes social and/or green projects in line with the priorities of the Spanish economy and the pillars of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan

14 June 2022. The chairman of Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), José Carlos García de Quevedo, and the Secretary General of the Treasury and International Financing, Carlos Cuerpo, today opened the sixth ICO Forum on Sustainable Bonds.

This forum, organised by ICO in collaboration with BBVA, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, ING and Santander, brought together issuers, investors, banks, agencies and other industry experts, in Madrid to analyse the current situation and new opportunities in the green and social bond market. 

José Carlos García de Quevedo and Carlos Cuerpo laid out the public sector's support for the development of sustainable finance, which is a growing market that has become an efficient financing alternative. After accumulating 12 sustainable bond issues (8 social and 4 green), ICO consolidates its leading position in the international social and green bond markets with a total amount issued of 6.05 billion Euros since 2015 and more than 15. billion Euros mobilized.

ICO’s role in the sustainable bond market

Sustainable bond issues are one of the key instruments in ICO's sustainability strategy, which aims to promote the financing of environmentally friendly and socially beneficial projects. 

Green Bonds

Last May, it launched its fourth issue of green bonds, which together with the previous three, amount to 2 billion Euros, to finance the activities, investments and projects of Spanish companies that contribute to environmental protection and the fight against climate change. The funds from these first three green bonds have been used to finance 30 projects with an estimated saving of more than 692,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and a mobilisation of almost 13 billion Euros.

Social Bonds

A pioneer in the social bond market in 2015, ICO has since launched 8 issues of this type, the last of which came in November 2021. In May 2020, ICO was the first issuer to launch a public transaction in response to COVID-19. In total, the social debt issued reaches 4.05 billion Euros placed with investors from very different parts of the world. Taking stock of the first 7 Social Bonds issued by ICO, 64,200 projects have been financed with an estimated positive social impact of 406,600 jobs.

In line with its sustainability policy and the 2022-2027 Strategy, ICO promotes projects that contribute to boosting the green and digital transition of the economy, aligned with the priorities of the Spanish economy and the pillars of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to boost sustainable economic growth.