Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall with 10-year Green Mortgage Pfandbrief Benchmark

From our point of view, the transaction was extremely successful. We again opted for a one-and-a-half-day execution and received good feedback from investors. Despite the challenging environment, particularly due to the US government shutdown, there was very high demand for our issue, which was ultimately six times oversubscribed and at times reached a volume of up to €4 billion. Especially after receiving the GlobalCapital Covered Bond Award “Best EURO Deal” for our first issue at the beginning of the year, this second issue once again underscores the great confidence our investors have in Schwäbisch Hall as an issuer. The large proportion of international investors proves the growing attractiveness of our issues.

The ten-year term was a rarity in 2025 and certainly presented a challenge. Nevertheless, it became apparent that the expected spread sensitivity was lower than assumed. This indicates that there is greater demand for longer maturities than the previous supply was able to meet. A green issue also offers numerous advantages from the issuer’s perspective: It broadens the investor base, particularly through the large proportion of green investors, and strengthens interest and demand for new issues.

The capital market for sustainable bonds has developed steadily in recent years. A “hard core” of investors and issuers for whom sustainability is more than just a marketing tool is increasingly emerging. This raises the bar. Accordingly, we have once again raised the level of ambition for our third green benchmark issue and adapted our green bond framework to the current standards of ICMA and vdp. We are therefore particularly pleased about the great interest shown by numerous investors with an explicitly green investment mandate.

We have a socially relevant business model: as the largest building society with more than six million customers, we finance dream homes throughout Germany and create a home for our customers. Our specialization in financing predominantly owner-occupied and well-secured real estate with nationwide distribution is the basis for the high quality of Schwäbisch Hall’s cover pool.

Since 2023, we have built up a green cover pool of €2.5 billion. The green pool is very granular and comprises more than 10,000 energy-efficient residential properties throughout Germany.

The importance of energy-efficient construction and living will continue to rise. For Schwäbisch Hall, regular Green Pfandbrief issues are therefore an important refinancing component where investors’ choice contributes to the sustainable transformation of the residential building stock.