World Bank unveils first sustainable development notes via GSSI

It is part of UBS's ESG investment strategy aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), which includes initiatives to help UBS clients and other stakeholders support the World Bank's development mandate.

The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or IBRD), rated Aaa/AAA, will for the first time, issue US dollar-denominated sustainable development notes that provide investors return exposure to the environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) performance of UN Global Compact signatories through the Global Sustainability Signatories Index  (GSSI)7.5% VC ER. 

UBS is the exclusive underwriter of this equity index-linked 7-year note and will distribute it to its investment banking and wealth management clients.  The index was created by Sustainalytics and is composed of up to 100 companies who demonstrate strong ESG performance, according to Sustainalytics ratings. The index is administered by Solactive.

UBS partnered with the World Bank in the development of this transaction. It is part of UBS's ESG investment strategy aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), which includes initiatives to help UBS clients and other stakeholders support the World Bank's development mandate.  The World Bank uses proceeds raised through Sustainable Development Bonds to support the financing of projects that advance its goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in alignment with the SDGs.

Arunma Oteh, World Bank Vice President and Treasurer, said: "We are delighted to broaden our partnership with UBS and bring to market another innovation that offers investors sustainable investment opportunities. Together, we will continue to focus on new ways to put capital to work to address the immense development challenges we must tackle to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Michael Nelskyla, Head of Investor Solutions at UBS Investment Bank, said: "We are privileged to work with the World Bank and the UN systems to offer new innovations to support the Sustainable Development Goals. This effort reflects our commitment to be the leading provider of products that help align our client's financial objectives with their priorities to support sustainability. We thank the clients committing capital to this initiative and hope it will encourage others to embrace innovative sustainable instruments in the future."

Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: "We are delighted to expand our investing partnership with the World Bank. Our private clients already enjoy unique exposure to the World Bank and to leading sustainable companies through our new 100% sustainable cross-asset portfolio, and we look forward to developing their engagement with IBRD as one of the few fully sustainable triple-A-rated issuers."

UBS will donate a percentage of its revenues from the notes to the UBS Optimus Foundation, to finance projects linked to the SDGs. UBS Optimus Foundation will select investments that are aligned with the focus of the Global Financing Facility(“GFF”) on women, children, and adolescents. GFF is a multi-sectoral innovative financing platform for human capital development.