Why are retail green bonds so popular in Japan?
Posted on 10. Mar, 2011 by Sean Kidney in blog
Environmentally-themed Uridashi bonds (non-JPY denominated bonds sold directly to Japanese individual investors) have been popular in Japan for some time, making it by far the biggest market for such bonds. We’ve now seen issues by everyone from the World Bank and the ADB to Norway’s Kommunalbanken, who have just issued USD180 million worth. Nikko AM has two retail funds that predominantly invest in World Bank Green Bonds collectively now at half a billion US dollars.
SIF-Japan data shows the total volume of bonds linked to the environment and SRI was US$5 billion at September 2010, with the bulk of them being environment-themed bonds. This dwarfs green retail product in other retail markets.
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