Hood River, Oregon, September 27, 2023 – Kestrel, the trusted US municipal market leader for Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds designations, announced completion of its 200th external review. Since becoming a Climate Bonds Initiative Approved Verifier in 2017 and releasing its first Second Party Opinion in 2018, Kestrel market share has grown exponentially. In Q2 2023, 80% of municipal bonds with an external review were verified by Kestrel.

As a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and a team with deep sector and practitioners’ expertise, Kestrel has become known as an effective collaborator and a trusted voice in the market. Kestrel is proud to have been a part of many pivotal market developments:

• Awards: Deals with external reviews by Kestrel have received multiple awards from Environmental Finance and The Bond Buyer, including 2023 Social Project Bond of the Year for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Innovative Financing award for the Connecticut Green Bank.
• Pricing Benefit: Key insights into dynamics of investor demand for labeled bonds and the presence of a pricing benefit (“greenium”) have been revealed through Kestrel-verified bonds. At least five transactions clearly demonstrated multiple basis-point pricing benefit.
• Independent Assurance: In 2022, bonds with external reviews outnumbered self-labeled bonds for the first time in the US municipal market.

Known for customer service, Kestrel has been a central player in the evolution of sustainable finance in the municipal market and a driver for innovation and market growth. “We have a special role in the market,” said Monica Reid, Kestrel’s CEO and founder. “Against the backdrop of climate change, the landscape of finance is changing. There’s a need for people like us that can speak both science and finance, or climate change and finance, or social equity and finance. The world needs translators to make sense of data, so that everybody can understand and have confidence in the value of different investments in relation to climate change and social justice.”

The Kestrel team is looking forward to continuous market evolution, expanded adoption of robust reporting schemes, and continued partnership and collaboration in the years ahead. Kestrel also verifies corporate bonds and structured finance transactions, and recently became the first US-based Climate Bonds Initiative Approved Verifier for Entity Level Verification under the Climate Bonds Standard. “We are excited to move toward Issuer-level certification,” said Ms. Reid, “it opens the door for so much innovation. Maybe we will see green equities in 2024.”

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About Kestrel

Kestrel Sustainability Intelligence™ for municipal markets helps set the market standard for sustainable finance. We do this through verification and our comprehensive Analysis and Scores.

Kestrel is a leading provider of external reviews for green, social and sustainability bond transactions. We are qualified to evaluate corporate and municipal bonds in all asset classes worldwide for conformance with international green and social bond standards.

kestrelesg.com |   info@kestrelesg.com | +1 800-756-8099

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