NE BUSINESS BUREAU
MUMBAI, MARCH 29
India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday announced that it has raised $100 million in green bonds through private placement.
“Continuing its commitment towards sustainable development, the bank raised $100 million floating-rate notes at a coupon rate of 80 basis points (bps) above the three-month Libor,” SBI said, adding that these bonds will be issued through SBI’s London branch and shall be listed on Singapore Exchange (SGX).
This is the bank’s third iteration of green bonds and already has raised such bonds of $700 million.
Rajnish Kumar, chairman, SBI said in a statement that he believes this issuance will reassure confidence in India’s strength in the international bond market.
“We at SBI have adopted the green bond framework to create a positive impact on the environment and this transaction is yet another step as part of our sustainability journey,” said Kumar.
In the last few years, green bonds have become quite popular among Indian and global issuers. According to RBI, green bonds, carbon market instruments, and FinTech-based green funds are now at the forefront of climate change financing.
“The market for green bonds has issuers from more than 50 countries, including multilateral institutions like the World Bank. During 2007-2018, cumulative issuances of green bonds worldwide have been $ 521 billion, with India ranking second among emerging market economies (EMEs) in these issuances (Climate Bonds Initiative, 2019),” the central bank said in its Report on Trends and Progress of Banking in India in December last year.
SBI employees to get extra pay during 21-day lockdown
The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced special payments to its staff who are manning bank branches during the nationwide lockdown to battle COVID-19.
In a circular, SBI announced that it has been decided to pay “One-Day’s Salary” (Basic Pay + DA) for every six Working Days on which an employee has worked, starting from March 23 up to April 14 or till the end of the Nation-wide Lockdown period, whichever is earlier.
The amount will be payable to all the staff members posted in Branches, CPCs, CACs, Treasury Operations, Global Markets, GITC, and IT Services. The payments will be made to the eligible staff members through HRMS after the stated period.
“In the wake of the spread of COVID-19 virus and the subsequent decision of a complete Lockdown announced by the Government of India to contain it, our Branches and CPCs have been working under difficult circumstances to provide banking services to the customers,” the circular said.
“As Banking Services are included in Essential services exempted from the Lockdown, our staff members at the Branches and CPCs have been serving the customers diligently, following the guidelines on ‘Social Distancing’,” it added.
“In recognition of the selfless service being rendered by our employees to the customers in these challenging circumstances, it is felt appropriate to provide such employees with some additional payment. The Bank is sensitive to the concerns of its employees and is in solidarity with them in their dedicated efforts,” SBI said in the circular.
