Page 24 - Banking Finance March 2023

PRESS RELEASE

India Exim Bank Opens Indian Markets with a Benchmark-sized

Sustainability Bond
India Exim Bank has successfully issued a 10-year (Stable) by S&P and ‘BBB- (Stable)’ by Fitch, same as the
Sustainability Bond of US$ 1 bn in the 144A/Reg-S format rating of Government of India.
on January 10, 2023, under its Environmental Social
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Harsha Bangari, Managing
Governance (ESG) Framework. This issuance makes India
Director of India Exim Bank, said, “We are delighted to open
Exim Bank the first Indian issuer to open the markets for
the debt markets for Indian issuers with our maiden
dollar and sustainability bond issuances in 2023. On the back
benchmark-sized sustainability bond under our ESG
of a strong start to the year and a constructive market,
Framework. This issuance makes India Exim Bank the largest
India Exim Bank capitalised on the strong demand, with an
ever single tranche IG ESG issuer out of India. This USD 1
intraday execution and initial price guidance tightening of
bn issuance is testimony to our commitment towards
30 bps to end at CT10+190 bps, inside of its secondaries and
sustainable financing both in India and partner developing
at par with the fair value point on the curve.
countries, and to align ourselves with the global best
In terms of geographic distribution, the bonds were well practices.”
distributed, with 39% in EMEA region, 32% in APAC and 29%
“India Exim Bank has been continuously monitoring the
from the USA. In terms of distribution, the bonds were
market for a possible issuance window. The quasi-sovereign
distributed to high quality investors with around 70%
nature of the Bank, EMBIG index eligibility of the bonds,
distributed to fund and asset managers, 12% to Banks, and
and the commitment towards sustainable financing
10% to Sovereign Wealth Funds. Followed by insurance/
garnered significant interest from marquee investors, with
pension corporations, private banks and others.
a peak orderbook of 3.7X. Given the swift build to the book
Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, MUFG, Standard and the large book size, we elected to move quickly to
Chartered and Bank of America acted as Joint Lead achieve a significant price tightening by 30 bps from the
Managers and book runners for the offering. India Exim initial guidance”, added Shri Tarun Sharma, Chief Financial
Bank has been rated as ‘Baa3 (Stable)’ by Moody’s, ‘BBB- Officer, India Exim Bank.
HDFC Bank launches pilot for Offline Digital Payments

HDFC Bank has launched a pilot in partnership with Crunchfish, to test offline digital payments for merchants and customers
under the RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox Program, known as ‘OfflinePay’.
HDFC Bank’s ‘OfflinePay’ will enable customers and merchants to make and receive payments even when there is no
mobile network. HDFC Bank is the first bank in the industry to launch a digital payment solution in a completely offline
mode. This can boost adoption of digital payments in smaller towns and rural areas with poor network connectivity.
Even in urban centres, it can enable cashless payments during large public events, fairs & exhibitions despite network
congestion; underground metro stations, parking lots, & retail stores with network blind spots; and even in airplanes,
sea-ferries, and trains with no network.
HDFC Bank has been working with the regulator to pilot offline digital payments under the Payments cohort of RBI’s
Regulatory Sandbox program. In September 2022, RBI approved HDFC Bank’s application, in partnership with Crunchfish,
to access the Regulatory Sandbox. Crunchfish Digital Cash AB is a subsidiary of Crunchfish AB, a publicly listed company
on Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm, Sweden. The pilot, if successful, will provide the basis for RBI’s
guidance and regulatory support in providing offline digital payments based on ‘Crunchfish Digital Cash’ platform to the
payment ecosystem of India.
Digital Payment typically requires one party (either the customer or the merchant) to be online. This limits the usage of
such payments to areas with good data connectivity. HDFC Bank’s ‘OfflinePay’ brings in the unique capability where both
customer and merchant can be fully offline and yet do the transaction. Merchants can receive an instant payment
confirmation even in an offline mode. As soon as either the merchant or the customer goes online, the transaction gets
settled.

22 | 2023 | MARCH | BANKING FINANCE