Demonstrating Our Leadership in the Green and Social Bond Market

With an increasing expectation of corporations to respond to the challenges facing our society, it's not enough for businesses to say they stand for something – we know that action is needed to truly help solve a problem. At Citi, this has been the mission underpinning our work and decisions every day. Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda is not a new strategic development, and we believe we can be our best by embedding our ESG priorities into our core businesses, working alongside our clients.

2020 was a year that impacted our global society in unprecedented ways. The pandemic reinforced the importance and need to focus on social impact, and connecting both social and environmental considerations in our efforts. As we continue to feel the effects of COVID-19, I'm incredibly proud to see the progress and continued momentum of our work in sustainable finance over the past year. Citi's 2021 Green and Social Bond Report represents our efforts to expand our thematic bond offerings in the green and social bond market, allowing us to support projects that address important issues such as climate change and affordable housing in the U.S. It also demonstrates our continued leadership in the sustainable debt capital markets and ability to meet growing investor demand for sustainable finance products globally.

Last year, as the #1 affordable housing lender in the U.S. for the 11th consecutive year, we were especially proud to publish our Social Bond Framework for Affordable Housing and issue our inaugural $2.5 billion Affordable Housing Bond, the largest-ever social bond from an issuer in the private sector. And since publishing our Green Bond Framework in 2019, we issued two benchmark green bond offerings – a Euro-denominated €1 billion benchmark issuance and a USD-denominated $1.5 billion benchmark issuance – which were met with high demand and interest from investors.

Green and social bond offerings such as these are an important component of our sustainable finance activities at Citi, in addition to our firm-wide commitments to finance and facilitate $1 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030, and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. These initiatives reflect the importance of the financial and capital markets to drive solutions, and the need to engage with our clients to bring these efforts to life.

I encourage you to read the report, which details examples of our work and the impact of our investments as we continue to strengthen our focus on innovative business solutions that help advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.