• EBRD invests PLN 80 million (€18.5 million equivalent) in ING Bank Hipoteczny’s first green covered bond issuance
• Total volume of issuance is PLN 400 million
• Funds will finance energy-efficient buildings

The EBRD is investing PLN 80 million – equivalent to €18.5 million – in the first green covered bond issuance by ING Bank Hipoteczny, combining support for capital market development and for the green economy in Poland. The total volume of the issuance, which was successfully placed today, was PLN 400 million.

The proceeds are earmarked to finance energy-efficient residential buildings, addressing a major challenge to reducing Poland’s carbon footprint. According to official data, residential buildings account for about 67 per cent of Poland’s entire building stock. Half of the country’s residential buildings were built before 1980 and the majority are uninsulated or insulated at sub-optimal levels. About 72 per cent of single-family houses have a low or very low energy performance standard.

Lucyna Stańczak-Wuczyńska, EBRD Director for EU Banks in the Financial Institutions Group, said: “This is an important transaction further strengthening Poland’s capital market and at the same time making a significant contribution to improving the country’s energy balance. The successful placement of the bond demonstrates the market’s appetite and capacity to provide solutions to the challenges we are facing. It also illustrates how institutions such as the EBRD are part of this effort.”

ING Bank Hipoteczny is a newly established mortgage bank incorporated in Poland and is a fully owned subsidiary of ING Bank Śląski, one of the country’s leading banks. It is ING’s first issuance of green covered bonds, a new instrument which has gained global recognition for enabling debt issuers to finance investments in greater environmental sustainability. The issuance was certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative to be aligned with its criteria for low-carbon buildings.

The EBRD is supporting investments in energy-efficient buildings through a dedicated Financial Institutions Green and Sustainability Bond Framework. The objective of the programme is to incentivise transparency in and adherence to high environmental standards and to report on the quantitative and qualitative environmental benefits and impacts of the underlying projects.

Since 2010, the EBRD has issued 85 green bonds totalling the equivalent of €5.1 billion. Developing the capital market in Poland is one of the Bank’s priorities in the country. Green bonds combine the creation of funds for green investments with the widening and diversification of the country’s investor base. To date, the EBRD has invested €9.9 billion in 420 projects in Poland.