Impact Bonds provide high credit quality, diversification, competitive returns and positive societal and environmental benefits. These bonds span the spectrum of traditional issuers across municipals, agencies and corporates and allocations are managed with primary consideration given to their traditional classification.
We have identified eight impact focus areas that we believe are most relevant to this asset class: Environment & Energy, Sustainable Infrastructure, Sustainable Development, Education, Affordable Housing, Agriculture, Community Development and Sustainable Products & Services.
Examples of impact investments categorized as “Other:”
-Community Investment Notes/CDs: Shorter-term instruments primarily focused on community development and issued by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) or credit unions.
-Sustainable Public Financing: Primarily municipal bonds focused on sustainable infrastructure solutions specific to municipalities, or federal government agency securities focused more broadly on issues such as housing and agriculture. Also, includes supranational issuers.
-Impact Asset Backed Securities (ABS): Includes securitizations of solar loans, payments on solar leases and power purchase agreements, electric vehicle leases, and education loans.