Sustainable Finance: A Quest for Value from ICO

In the last 50 years of history, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) has raised resources in the markets to finance its activity. Since 1996, this fundraising has taken place in international markets and it was in 2015 that it reached a new milestone when ICO entered the sustainable bond market, launching the first social bond issue in Spain for €1,000 million. Subsequently, in 2019, ICO entered the green bond market launching the first €500 million green bond. The funds raised with this transaction have contributed to mobilizing more than €4,000 million in financing for projects that have generated an estimated saving of 315 tons in CO2 emissions. Since then, ICO has become a fundamental player in this market at European level, with nine issues of sustainable bonds (7 social and 2 green) reaching €4,550 million. This prominent role of the ICO in the sustainable bond market has allowed it to join the Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network (NSBN), a platform that centralizes relevant information on sustainable bond issuers and operations around the world with the aim of promoting transparency in this market. These issues are used to finance operations that generate a positive social or environmental impact. In the case of social bonds, ICO allocated the funds from the first issuances to finance projects of micro-enterprises and self-employed individuals located in different Spanish regions, with an income below the Spanish average, with the aim of promoting inclusive economic growth and improvement in the distribution of income. The last issuance of social bonds launched by ICO in May 2020 aimed to finance operations of the self-employed, SMEs and companies that contribute to mitigating the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case of green bonds, the funds raised are dedicated to finance projects in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, pollution prevention and control and sustainable management of natural resources.