Aiming to reduce social disparities and facilitate affordable and sustainable access to housing finance for vulnerable population in Korea, the Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued a €650 million ($740.6 million) social covered bond to increase housing supply finance for the country's low-to-moderate income households.

The deal garnered sizeable orders, with peak books standing north of €850 million, which KHFC says shows robust investor demand despite the bond market facing some headwinds. ING acted as joint book-runner alongside Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Natixis and Société Genérale.

KHFC was established in March 2004 as a state-run government enterprise to support the Korean government's housing welfare policies. It is a repeat social bond issuer that provide mortgage loans targeting Korea's financially vulnerable populations. It regards this bond as a continued commitment to improve public welfare and facilitate the development of the Korean economy by increasing housing finance supply.