WLB™ SERIES SOCIAL BOND – Women's Livelihood Bond

In line with IIX’s mission to give women a voice and value in the global market, the WLB™ Series is aligned with the Social Bonds Principles (SBP) published by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), as well as with the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum’s ASEAN Social Bond Standards.

This ensures that proceeds from the bonds go towards financing Borrowers who will collectively drive forward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality, ultimately benefitting underserved women across Asia-Pacific.

GET ACCESS TO WLB™ 2 SOCIAL BOND FRAMEWORK

GET ACCESS TO WLB™ 3 SOCIAL BOND FRAMEWORK

SOCIAL BONDS PROCESS

A summary of the WLB™ Series compliance with the SBP four core tenets is as follows:

Use of Proceeds

The WLB™ Series proceeds will be used to make loans to eleven underlying Borrowers who will collectively drive forward the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. Over their four-year tenors, the WLB™ Series is expected to support the socio-economic empowerment of 165,000+ underserved women (direct beneficiaries) by transitioning them to sustainable livelihoods, and to impact an additional 275,000+ women and girls (indirect beneficiaries) through enhanced multi-generational impact and community resilience.

Process for Project Evaluation and Selection

The Portfolio Manager conducts a rigorous social and financial due diligence on potential underlying Borrowers of the WLB™ Series and uses a set of screening criteria which have been jointly agreed upon with the United States Agency for International Development. The Portfolio Manager clearly communicates the social objectives of the WLB™ Series , the screening criteria used, and the portfolio selection process to investors through the Information Memorandum to ensure transparency.

Management of Proceeds

The proceeds of the WLB™ Series will be tracked by the Portfolio Manager in an appropriate manner. The issuers (WLB Asset II Pte. Ltd. and WLB Asset II B Pte. Ltd.)) is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) established specifically to issue the bonds and make the loans to the underlying Borrowers. As such, all of the proceeds will be used for the purposes of the bonds. The SPV will be required to return any unallocated portion of the proceeds to bondholders.

Reporting

The Portfolio Manager will monitor the impact performance of the underlying Borrowers throughout the life of the bond and will provide the following reports: (i) semi-annual impact reporting based on self-reported data from underlying Borrowers; (ii) annual impact reporting based on verified data and field visits to interview end beneficiaries; and (iii) ad-hoc announcements on the Singapore Exchange in case of any material changes to the underlying portfolio.

IIX’s Impact Assessment Framework

To further support the WLB™ Series’ compliance with the ICMA SBPs, IIX’s Impact Assessment Framework is used to (i) assess how the Portfolio Manager evaluates gender-lens outcomes on end beneficiaries (underserved women); and (ii) a summary of the expected impact of the WLB™ Series at the portfolio level to assess how the Portfolio Manager creates impact through a multi-country, multi-sector portfolio, while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.