Photo: Courtesy of Bank of China, London Branch

 
Bank of China held a listing ceremony for six sustainable bonds worth $2.2 billion at the London Stock Exchange on November 12.

Zheng Zeguang, Ambassador for China to the UK, said green finance is certainly "a key area" where both China and UK can work even more closely together. "Since 2015, four Chinese financial institutions have issued nine green bonds with a value of 4.28 billion US dollars in the UK. Today's listing is yet another outcome of the joint efforts of Chinese and British financial institutions. It is also a testament to the broad prospects for China-UK cooperation on green finance," Zheng said. 

John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, said the listing is "particularly fitting" given that it comes on the last day of the COP 26 summit, adding that it celebrates the integral roles that the UK capital market and Chinese banks have had in financing the global green transition. Glen praised Bank of China's commitment to building its London branch into a global hub for green finance.

The highly innovative 'Sustainability Re-linked' bond issued in October was a three year, $300million issue by Bank of China, London Branch. The underlying loans are all made to borrowers in the US, UK, Hong Kong or Singapore and interest payments are linked to specific sustainability performance targets. 

The secondary listing of sustainable bonds included two 'Blue bonds' linked to water quality projects, two 'Transition bonds' linked to cleaner energy transition projects and a bond issued to promote biodiversity.