New ‘ESG Bridge’ to Spur Sales of German Sustainability Debt

A German market is introducing a new sustainable debt structure to boost transparency and encourage more smaller companies to dip their toes into the ESG space.

The new, so-called ESG bridge structure intends to buoy sales of Schuldschein notes with ESG criteria, building a market where such debt <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbDocId":"R55LGLDWRGG2","_id":"0000017f-fa1f-d35b-a17f-fbdf3fe90000","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">accounted for more than a quarter of last year’s issuance. It gives companies time to build up their ESG reporting, which can eventually be included in financing agreements.

It’s designed for companies that want to commit to some sort of sustainability framework but aren’t yet ready to have targets and key ...