For the fourth year in a row, Bank of America (BofA) has won Lead manager of the year, green bonds - US muni bond, while winning Lead manager of the year, social bonds - US muni bond for the second year in a row, and adding Lead manager of the year, sustainability bonds - US muni bond to its set of awards for the first time.
In green bonds, it executed a first-time issuance for the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport as well as a public-private municipal environmental improvement revenue bond for US Steel's new metals recycling facility – which has also won Green bond of the year – US muni bond in this year's Sustainable Debt Awards. BofA also brought repeat issuers back to the market such as San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Ohio Water, Massachusetts Water and Honolulu.
For social bonds, BofA acted as book runner for eight housing issuers as affordable housing continued to be its focus in this market. It was also lead manager on a follow on issuance for the City of Detroit's social bond for their neighbourhood improvement bonds.
On the sustainability bond side, BofA acted as book runner for seven issuers across four different sectors. These bonds are to be used for housing, education, clean transportation as well as for general purpose. Several of the municipalities were repeat issuers under sustainability programmes that BofA has developed.
"Municipal bonds have been a key way to help bring finance to projects with an environmental or social focus," said Matthew McQueen, head of global mortgage & securitized products and global municipal banking & markets. "From education and housing to clean transit and infrastructure, we're proud to do our part to help cities, states and localities meet their sustainability goals."
In 2021, BofA launched the goal of deploying $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030. So far it reports it has executed $560 billion across all of its sustainable finance activity. These include climate-related finance with a focus on low-carbon energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation, water conservation, land use and waste and socially inclusive development, scaling capital to advance community development, affordable housing, healthcare, education, as well as racial and gender equality. More than $316 billion of this is focused on the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
The main priority areas of that funding are capital for efficient, low-carbon power generation and transmission, sustainable transportation with an emphasis on electric vehicles and sustainable fuels, sustainable food and agriculture, clean water and sanitation, recycling and up-cycling, carbon-capture and off-setting solutions, it says.
BofA has also raised its own corporate ESG issuance to $14.93 billion across six green, two social and three sustainability bonds.
