EIB

Two senior officials who have been central to the European Investment Bank’s transition to greener lending and rebranding as the EU’s ‘climate bank’ are leaving, prompting a reshuffle of the management committee.

The European Investment Bank gave the flagging volumes in the non-UK sterling SSA market a boost on Friday, bringing the first ever Sonia floating rate note linked to the Bank of England’s new compounded Sonia index.

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Public sector borrowers found themselves in a tricky position as they returned to the primary euro market this week as they attempted to strike a balance between current secondary levels and where the market is heading with the arrival of the European Union’s giant borrowing programme from September.

The European Investment Bank mandated banks on Thursday for the first Sonia floating rate note linked to the Bank of England’s new compounded Sonia index which was launched earlier this month.

The European Investment Bank re-opened the primary euro public sector bond market with a decent outing in the 10 year part of the curve on Tuesday. Finland is next up, hitting screens for a deal of the same tenor expected on Wednesday.

The European Investment Bank will re-open the euro public sector bond new issue market for the last funding period of the year. Further issuers are expected to appear this week, trying to get in before the European Union’s giant borrowing programme begins.

When the European Parliament voted to approve the EU Taxonomy Regulation on June 18 — the final step in the Regulation’s legislative journey to providing the foundation for sustainable finance in Europe — more than just a glass was raised at the European Investment Bank. The issuer took the opportunity to issue a new Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) and announce the extension of CABs to two new project areas that substantially contribute to climate change mitigation.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is launching the second phase of its Green Economy Transition approach and hopes to help policymakers make the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic a green one. But critics say its plans are little more than “business as usual” and that even the activities it classes as green sometimes have weak environmental credentials.

The weakness of communication along the capital markets chain is one reason why so little progress has been made on greening the economy.

The European Investment Bank is going through intense discussions — both internally and externally — about its plan to become the EU’s Climate Bank. NGOs are accusing it of “backtracking” and demanding it sets sustainability criteria for the companies and banks it works with, but the EIB insists it is listening to concerns and will reveal more of its plans later this year.

The European Investment Bank will be able to issue more Climate Awareness Bonds (CABs) after extending its lending framework to make two additional categories eligible for inclusion.