Despite the fact that the impact bond market began as an issuer-labelled one, standards and best practices have emerged over time to protect the integrity of the market, namely in the form of the Green Bond Principles (GBPs), Climate Bonds Standard, Social Bond Principles (SBPs) and Sustainability Bond Guidelines (SBGs), says Milly Leong, technical director of ratings at Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC). To facilitate the growing interest, after seeing the potential of impact bonds in funding sustainable development, MARC published an impact bond assessment (IBA) alongside its bond credit ratings recently.The criteria is designed to assess green, social and sustainability bonds, which are collectively referred to as impact bonds. Leong says MARC decided come up with the assessment as the nascent field is rapidly developing. “The momentum is picking up in both the public and private sectors to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the UN.”

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