ICO has completed its 13th social bond issuance, worth €500 million, to finance business projects with a positive social impact
05 October 2026
- Strong support from international investors, who purchased 81% of the new social bonds, together with demand exceeding €1.2 billion, demonstrates confidence in the Spanish economy.
- To date, ICO’s social bond issuances have financed more than 80,200 business projects that promote economic and territorial cohesion in our country.
- With this latest issuance, ICO has surpassed €6.5 billion in social bond issuance and completed its 21st sustainable bond issuance, a milestone that brings the total cumulative volume to €10,55 billion.
Instituto de Crédito Oficial (rated A+/A+/A/A3 by S&P/Scope/Fitch/Moody’s) has issued its 13th social bond, worth €500 million, with a five-year maturity. With this transaction, ICO has raised a total of €6,550 million through social bond issuances.
Today’s public offering has generated strong demand from international investors, with subscription requests totalling over €1.2 billion, 2.4 times the amount issued.
High demand from international investors
The strong demand made it possible to tighten the spread over the Treasury benchmark for the same maturity from the initially indicated 9 basis points to 6 basis points, resulting in more favourable financing terms for social projects.
The quality of the order book is reflected in the participation of international investors, who subscribed for 81% of the new bonds. Furthermore, 24% of the newly issued bonds were placed with accounts that incorporate ESG criteria in their investment decisions. This demonstrates investors’ confidence in the Spanish economy as a whole and in ICO in particular as an issuer of social bonds financing projects in sectors such as healthcare, education, housing and food security, while safeguarding our country’s economic and territorial cohesion.
The underwriters for this social bond issuance were Bank of America, Crédit Agricole (CACIB), Citi and Santander. Helaba and Natixis acted as co-leads. The transaction pays a coupon of 3.65%. In terms of geographical distribution, a significant share of investment came from Asia and the Middle East (24%), followed by Spain (19%) and Germany (15%). Other European countries, including France, the United Kingdom and the Benelux countries, accounted for the remainder.
By investor type, fund managers accounted for 34% of the total, while central banks and official institutions accounted for 33%, followed by banks (25%) and insurance companies and pension funds (8%).
21 sustainable bond issuances by ICO
These social and green bond issuance figures confirm ICO’s position as one of the key issuers in the European sustainable bond market. Following today’s closing, the Institute has now completed a total of 21 sustainable debt issuances since entering the market in 2015. With this milestone, the ICO has brought the total volume of sustainable issuances (13 social and 8 green) to €10.55 billion, with proceeds allocated to projects run by Spanish companies that support sustainable growth, the green transition and territorial cohesion across the country.
Following today’s transaction, ICO has now issued a total of €6.55 billion in social bonds. The funds raised will be used to finance projects with a positive social impact undertaken by the self-employed, SMEs and Spanish companies. To this end, the Institute channels the funds raised to the business sector through its funding programmes.
To date, ICO’s social bond issuances have helped to finance more than 80,200 business projects. These projects have helped to create or sustain more than 550,000 jobs and enabled the construction of social infrastructure such as hospitals and housing.