The Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), a Singapore-based impact enterprise, has closed the world’s first social sustainability bond expected to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
The $8 million Women’s Livelihood Bond is the first in a series of IIX social sustainability bonds.
SINGAPORE’S budding market for social and sustainability bonds took another step forward on Thursday with an US$8 million issuance of 5.65 per cent four-year Women’s Livelihood Bonds by Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) to be listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
DBS Bank has closed the ‘world’s first’ social sustainability bond, to be listed on a stock exchange. Developed in partnership with Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange, it will provide loans to women-focused social enterprises and microfinance institutions in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
SINGAPORE – A new bond to debut on the Singapore Exchange, called the Women’s Livelihood Bond, said to be the world’s first social sustainability bond to be listed on a stock exchange.
The US$8 million bond provides loans to social enterprises and microfinance institutions, which, in turn, aim to help more than 385,000 women in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
SINGAPORE’S DBS Bank and Singapore-based impact investing platform Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) have priced a US$8 million bond aimed at improving livelihoods of more than 385,000 women in South-east Asia.
Termed the Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB), this four-year bond offers a coupon rate of 5.65 per cent per annum, and is expected to be listed on the Singapore Exchange within a month, said DBS in a release on Thursday. If successful, the listing will make it the first such bond to be listed on a traditional stock exchange.
IIX, a Singapore-based impact enterprise that bridges the gap between finance and development, said the proceeds from the bond are lent to microfinance institutions and social enterprises whose activities benefit women. Photo: IIX
SINGAPORE – In a global first, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), with the support of DBS Bank, is listing on the Singapore Exchange a US$8 million (S$11 million) Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB) that seeks to improve the lives of more than 385,000 women in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Each year, UN Climate Change recognizes some of the world’s best and brightest examples of global climate action. In 2019, IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond Series was awarded for creating the most innovative financial instrument to advance #ClimateAction, along with AliPay, Apple, Impossible Foods, and other innovators addressing not only climate change, but also help drive forward progress on many other sustainable development goals. At the sidelines of #COP25 in Madrid, UNFCCC held series of special events highlighting the awardees of the 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award. IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond was honored during the special event on “Financing for Climate-Friendly Investment” held on Dec 9, 2019.
Video Credit: UNFCCC Momentum for Change
IIX was one of the 15 winners of the 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award for our financial innovations towards climate action through the Women’s Livelihood Bond. Catch our Founder and CEO Durreen Shahnaz as she talks about how the Bond, is connecting private capital to underserved women across Asia in this new and groundbreaking way. For more information about the Women’s Livelihood Bond Series: http://bit.ly/37s9Y54
Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), a leader in social sector development through impact investing, recently announced its Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action on Women’s Impact Bond (WIB) at the 2014 CGI Annual Meeting.
The WIB will pool US$10 million into an investment vehicle that will support social enterprises and microfinance institutions working towards clean cook-stove initiatives. The WIB will be a publicly listed bond product on the Impact Exchange, the world’s first social stock exchange, allowing retail investors to participate in addition to traditional impact investors.