Funding

For its borrowing activity, the Bank has been rated by Moody’s since 1988, by Standard & Poor’s since 1989, by Fitch Ratings since 1996 and by Scope Ratings* since 2020. On its principal long-term debt, it enjoys the rating Aaa, outlook stable by Moody’s, AAA by Standard & Poor’s – stable outlook, AA+ by Fitch Ratings – positive outlook and AAA* by Scope Ratings – stable outlook. On its short-term debt the Bank is rated P-1 (Moody’s) / A-1+ (Standard & Poor’s) / F1+ (Fitch Ratings) / S-1+ (Scope Ratings*).
* unsolicited

Funding Strategy

• Objectives
  - Coverage of lending needs
  - Repayment of maturing debt
  - Maintaining a sufficient liquidity level
• Diversification of funding sources based on 3 pillars
  - Benchmark issues in major currencies on a regular basis
  - Other public markets, taps and private placements answering specific investor demand in terms of size, currencies, maturities and structures
  - Pioneering Social Inclusion Bond franchise
  

Additional funding characteristics 

- USD and GBP market usually for short- to medium-term and EUR for long-dated maturities
- Other currencies to optimise funding activity on a sustainable basis
- Maturity profile correlated with the average maturity of the loan portfolio
- 0% risk-weighted, Level 1 High Quality Liquid Assets

• Bond issue programmes
  - U.S. SEC-registered Debt Programme for USD benchmark issues
  - EMTN Programme
  - Australian and New Zealand Dollar MTN Programme
  - Japan Shelf Registration
  - Stand-alone documentation in other markets
  
• Borrowing authorisation (with prefunding possibility)
  - 2022: up to EUR 6.5 bn
  - 2023: up to EUR 7 bn
  

Funding Review

For 2022, the Bank borrowed a total amount of € 5.99 billion, broken down into 21 funding operations and six currency markets, with maturities of one year or more. The amount raised for 2022 was € 0.5 million higher than for 2021, which stood at € 5.5 billon.

For 2022, 64.7% of the funds raised by the Bank were denominated in euros, 15.6% in US dollars, 13.9% in British pounds, 3.3% in Australian dollars, 1.7% in Norwegian krone and 0.8% in Hong-Kong dollars. 

The average maturity of the issues launched for 2022 was 5.7 years, vs 5.3 years for 2021. 61.5% of the issues carried out under the borrowing programme had final maturities of close to five years or more, in order to ensure the refinancing of the Bank's loans and avoid cash gaps in the coming years.

CEB's Social Inclusion Bonds

Socially responsible investments are gaining in importance in the international capital markets and the CEB with its specific social mandate dating from the creation of the institution in 1956 is particularly well positioned for issuing social bonds and allocating the proceeds to its lending.

The relevant documentation includes the following:

• CEB’s updated Social Inclusion Bond Framework (March 2022)
  This document sets out the framework of CEB’s Social Inclusion Bonds and describes the underlying rationale and methodology for loan selection, management of proceeds and reporting.
• Sustainalytics SARL - Second Opinion (March 2022)
  The CEB engaged Sustainalytics to provide an independent assessment of the social quality of the portfolio of financed Eligible Social Loans and to assess the alignment of the CEB Social Inclusion Bond Framework with CEB’s sustainability objectives and with ICMA’s Social Bond Principles.
• Social Inclusion Bond 2017 Report (March 2018)
  
• Social Inclusion Bond 2018 Report (March 2019)
• Social Inclusion Bond 2019 Report (March 2020)
• Social Inclusion Bond 2020 Report (March 2021)
• Social Inclusion Bond 2021 Report (March 2022)
• Social Inclusion Bond 2022 Report (March 2023)
  
  The CEB’s Social Inclusion Bonds can be issued through any of its various bond issue programmes described in the section Funding Strategy above.

• Advisory
  Social bond teach-ins have been organised for a number of the Bank’s clients. If your organisation is considering issuing a social bond, contact Investor Relations.

Bond Buyback Policy

In response to inquiries received from its bondholders, the CEB has adopted a buyback policy. The lead managers of CEB bonds are requested to maintain a two-way liquid secondary market. Nevertheless, the Bank considers the buyback of its debt as a service to investors when two-way quotations are not available for a given bond.

Buyback transactions occur mainly in the case of non-benchmark issues such as private placements and structured notes. Upon an investor request for a predefined nominal amount, the CEB will quote a price at which it is willing to repurchase the specific bonds on a best efforts basis. Buybacks can be for the total outstanding nominal amount of an issue or for part of it.

The CEB cancels the repurchased bonds as soon as the transaction is concluded and informs the relevant market participants of the new outstanding amount of the bond issue.

Contact Investor Relations