Citi Announces $1 Billion Social Finance Bond Offering to Advance Social Initiatives Globally - Seite 2

“This bond is a first-of-its-kind offering that covers an expansive portfolio of assets across a breadth of emerging markets, allowing us to strengthen our relationships with clients and investors around the world and grow Citi’s sustainable bond offering,” said Michael Verdeschi, Treasurer of Citi. “We worked exclusively with women and minority-owned broker dealers, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to advancing racial equity in the capital markets and broader financial services industry.”

These efforts follow Citi’s inaugural $2.5 billion Affordable Housing Bond issued last year, the largest-ever social bond from an issuer in the private sector, progressing key objectives of Citi’s Action for Racial Equity commitments to help close the racial wealth gap and improve economic mobility in the U.S. Through Citi’s social finance efforts in the U.S., Citi will continue to demonstrate results in providing greater access to banking and financial services and expanding affordable housing and homeownership for communities of color.

Citi has been a longstanding global leader in financial inclusion. The expansion of Citi Social Finance builds on a 15-year track record of developing new business models that leverage market-based approaches to improve the livelihoods of low-income communities in emerging markets. To date, these efforts have reached 4 million unbanked and underbanked individuals in emerging markets, 3.5 million of which are women.

For example, Citi was recently the sole coordinator on a $75 million transaction to expand access to off-grid solar energy in Kenya. The financing will support Greenlight Planet’s ambitions to reach an additional 10 million households in low-income, off-grid communities over the next five years.

“Across the globe, billions of people lack access to basic services. Citi Social Finance has a mandate to deepen our work and build new innovative partnerships with corporate clients, using our unparalleled global footprint to drive social impact with the urgency that so many low-income communities need,” said Jorge Rubio Nava, Global Head of Citi Social Finance. “Our transition to social finance builds on our leadership in financial inclusion and expands the scope of our impact to other areas, such as access to healthcare, education, clean water and agriculture, and reflects an intentional business strategy to integrate social impact into Citi’s transactions.”