Environmental Finance's Bond Awards were expanded again this year to reflect the growth and evolution of the green, social, sustainability and sustainability linked (GSSS) bond markets and the GSS loan market.
New categories include:
- Asset-backed/asset-based/covered social bond of the year
- Social bond of the year – sovereign
- Social bond of the year – US muni bond
- Sustainability-linked bond of the year
- Sustainability-linked loan of the year
In total 69 awards were handed out. Winners spanned the globe, from Australia to Colombia, and Sweden to West Africa.
A prominent success story this year was HSBC, which claimed victories in seven of the 19 Lead manager of the year categories.
Other multiple award winners were BNP Paribas and IDB Invest.
Isabelle Vic-Philippe, Amundi's head of euro aggregate and lead portfolio manager, won Personality of the year. The award was in recognition of her work helping to update ICMA's Social Bond Principles to allow the market to more effectively respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Judges said: "Isabelle's work is an example of the solutions that can be provided by engaged individuals in the green and social bond markets."
A selection of bonds received a highly commended recognition as well. The highly commended awards cover those awards that were just shy of the points needed to win their category but deserve special mention.
All entries were judged by an independent panel of judges, drawn from leading investment firms.
Congratulations to all of the winners and many thanks to the hard-working judges. Here's hoping for further growth and innovation in 2021.
A list of all the winners can be found here.
The winners' summaries were written by Ahren Lester, Christopher Marchant, Michael Hurley, Peter Cripps, Joe Walsh and Annabelle Palmer.
Award winners will have the opportunity to be showcased in Environmental Finance's Innovation Showcase Conference on 8 May 2021. For speaking and sponsorship options please contact: Neil Porteous neil.porteous@environmental-finance.com