Green Bonds 

Mr. Mewesen, what is your current assessment of the sustainable bond market?

Many institutional investors are already committed to the “UN Principles for Responsible Investments” and are aligning their investment decisions according to ESG criteria. At the same time, the trend towards further regulation will intensify. The EU is working on an action plan for sustainable finance, which is intended to establish a uniform classification system that will define the obligations of institutional investors to an even greater extent, eventually. I expect this will lead to further increases in investment demand and a corresponding rise in demand for sustainable investment products. To be specific, savings banks are reporting an increased need for sustainable securities for their own investment portfolios due to the growing awareness of this issue in society.

What role do Green Bonds play in Helaba’s product portfolio?

Green bonds, where the proceeds of the issues are used to finance sustainable loan portfolios, currently dominate the market with a share of around 85 percent. However, feedback from many investors indicates that going forward they will increasingly focus on the integrated sustainability performance of the respective issuer. Stable and good sustainability ratings are playing an increasingly important role here. Therefore, our funding strategy aims to establish Helaba as an integrated sustainable issuer across all funding instruments in line with our sustainability strategy.

How sustainable are Helaba's Green Bonds?

Foremost, all eligible green loans are fully compliant with the EU Taxonomy. We are applying current best-practice market standards and will continuously adapt to new developments. This way we ensure the highest possible sustainability quality of our assets for investors. In addition, our sustainability selection criteria are not only applied to the existing portfolio, but they will also systematically be applied to all new business. Hence, our sustainable product portfolio will increase naturally. It is therefore fair to say that we have established the infrastructure needed to integrate the stringent EU Taxonomy standards in our lending activities as well. This is an important first step towards a complete transition in all business processes. After final publication of the Taxonomy Regulation and further assessment, we will be able to include additional portfolios of the bank in the same way. This means that future growth is already built into our concept.

How does Helaba support the transition process of its customers towards sustainability?

This is one of our main priorities. We see a clear increase in demand for both, sustainable products and corresponding advisory services. Consequently, we are currently developing new ESG-related asset and liability products in collaboration with various divisions. At the same time, we are intensifying our advisory services regarding new regulatory requirements. Helaba wants to play an active role in shaping the transition of the economy and the financial service industry towards sustainability.

The same is true for the entire Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, which we form part of. There are good reasons, why Helaba, Frankfurter Sparkasse and Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft, together with 172 savings banks and other S-Group affiliated companies, have signed the "Voluntary commitment to climate-friendly and sustainable business practices". With this statement, we have committed ourselves to reducing the CO2 emissions of our own operations to zero by 2035 at the latest, to aligning our credit products and our own investments towards climate targets and to supporting our customers in the sustainable transformation of the economy.