South Korea’s state-run Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) has offered foreign currency-denominated social bonds worth $500 million to raise funds to support small- and mid-sized businesses struggling to recover from the COVID-19 fallout.

IBK said Tuesday that it sold five-year social bonds at a coupon rate of 1.04 percent, 72.5 basis points over the five-year U.S. treasury yield.

Social bond is one of the ESG bonds which are raised to address environmental, social and governance issues.

The lender on par with sovereign rating was able to raise the funds in favorable terms thanks to the strong demand for Korean notes despite the rising market volatility amid COVID-19, an official from the bank said.

By Pulse

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