Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
KB Insurance issues ESG bond to strengthen capital soundness
The headquarters of KB Insurance located in southern Seoul / Courtesy of KB Insurance
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Aiming to strengthen capital soundness and ESG-principled management, KB Insurance issued sustainability bonds worth 286 billion won ($222 million).
The insurer announced Monday that the sustainability notes are 10-year maturity bonds and 5-year maturity callable bonds, meaning a type of bond that provides the issuer of the bond with the right to redeem the bond before its maturity date, with an embedded call option.
The company expects the firm's risk-based capital (RBC) to rise by 12 percent with the issuance of the bond.
KB Insurance plans to spend the raised capital on various social business projects, ranging from renewable energy, eco-friendly building, bio-diversity conservation and housing support, as part of the insurer's ESG management activities.
The company has also been collaborating with the Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2020 in social impact bond (SIB) projects to address the youth unemployment issue.
The country's insurers are increasingly turning their eyes to ESG bonds, as a means of both securing their capital and fulfilling corporate social responsibility.