The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, expects to invest up to $300 million in green bonds, mainly in the financial sector, in the Middle East and North Africa by 2020, a director at the organisation told Reuters in an interview. IFC is participating in a $150 million green bonds programme by Fransabank, the fourth-largest Lebanese bank.
On Thursday Fransabank become the first bank in the Levant to issue green bonds, which raise capital for projects with environmental benefits, when it announced the first sale of $60 million. Global green bond issuance hit a record $155.5 billion in 2017 and is tipped to surpass that level in 2018. They are becoming an increasingly popular source of borrowing for emerging market banks, with National Bank of Abu Dhabi launching the Middle East's first green bond in 2016.
"We want to do more in this region and we are in discussions with a few banks in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and there could be more issues in the 2018 calendar year," said Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC director for the Middle East and North Africa. "If all develops well, we could reach $200 to $300 million in the next couple of years within this space in the region."