Top underwriter of green bonds HSBC eyes US$1 trillion market

HSBC logos are seen on a branch bank in the financial district in New York, U.S., August 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

TOKYO: More first-time issuers are likely to tap financing markets for environmentally and socially responsible (ESG) debt in the next year or so, bringing the total outstanding amount of such bonds to about $1 trillion by the first half of 2021, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.

"We’re still discovering new clients that have not issued in a sustainable format, ” said Jean-Marc Mercier, global co-head of debt capital markets at HSBC, the biggest underwriter of the bonds this year, in an interview in Tokyo. The "internal wiring” of the borrower is transformed in selling such debt, he said.