Winning six awards across sovereign, municipal, financial institution and corporate lead manager segments, judges praised HSBC's "strong breadth of structuring and transactional experience" across a diverse range of issuer types, geographies and product formats.

A defining feature of HSBC's performance in 2025 was its role in new markets. In sovereign green bonds, HSBC was on 100% of the inaugural sovereign green bond issuances in 2025, supporting debut transactions for Saudi Arabia and China.

These were not only milestone deals in size and visibility, but also in substance, introducing new frameworks, investor engagement models and use-of-proceeds standards.

For sovereigns such as Indonesia and Hong Kong, HSBC states it combined structuring expertise, innovation (including digital green bonds for Hong Kong), and post-issuance support to strengthen the integrity and evolution of the market.

Winning the award for Lead manager of the year, green bonds – sovereign, HSBC says its work in sovereigns seeks to extend beyond execution into education, helping governments link funding strategies with their long-term climate goals while building transparency and investor trust, ultimately leading the judges to award it the Lead manager of the year, green bonds – sovereign accolade.

In the local authority and municipal space, the bank played a central role in developing issuances in the European Green Bond (EuGB) market for municipalities, alongside continuing to be active in the local authority and municipal space in Europe, Asia, and the MENAT region (Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye).

Winning the awards for Lead manager of the year for both green bonds and sustainability bonds in the local authority/municipality categories, judges praised HSBC's "market impact and scale".

Landmark transactions include supporting the French public transport authority, Île-de-France Mobilités, with its inaugural EuGB, as well as multiple Chinese provincial green and blue bonds, and issuances across Spanish regions, Belgian communities and French municipalities.

"Its role in opening the EU Green Bond market to local authorities, high participation rate (33% of EuGBs for the sector in 2025), the landmark [Ile de France Mobilités] execution, strong local currency capabilities, and leading league table positions, demonstrate global execution reach, product innovation across labels, and the ability to mobilise sizeable cross-border investor demand," commented one judge.

Winning Lead manager of the year, sustainability bonds – corporate, HSBC's work is underpinned by both scale and diversity. In the last year, the bank has supported issuers across utilities, telecoms, housing, infrastructure and energy, in both developed and emerging markets, including the Turkish technology and communications operator Turkcell's landmark dual-tranche sustainability issuance, and major water utility and housing association deals in the UK.

In the social bonds for financial institutions (FI) space, HSBC's work spans debut transactions, such as the first-ever social benchmark bond from German private bank Hamburger Sparkasse, to thematic innovation, including agriculture-focused social notes for South Korean commercial bank NongHyup Bank.

At the same time, HSBC has been instrumental in scaling established programmes, supporting multiple issuances addressing affordable housing, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) financing and employment generation, particularly in South Korea.

In awarding HSBC the Lead manager of the year, social bonds – financial institution award, judges praised HSBC for playing "a pivotal global role in FI social bonds, ranking among the top arrangers and enabling debut and innovative social issuances across markets, especially APAC".

Finally, despite a subdued sustainability-linked bond (SLBs) market, HSBC successfully brought issuers to new markets and formats last year, including Italian energy infrastructure firm Snam's landmark US dollar debut – the largest US dollar SLB of 2025 – and Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro's inaugural issuance under India's new regulatory framework.

At the same time, it supported repeat issuers, such as the multinational retailer Carrefour, in maintaining active SLB curves, while expanding the product into new geographies and currencies, including Mexico.

It was this expansion into new geographies and currencies, despite market headwinds, that led the judges to give HSBC the Lead manager of the year, sustainability-linked bonds award.

One judge praised HSBC for excelling in this area, giving it "top marks" for structuring ambitious targets and KPIs, as well as showing "innovation for pioneering deals...amid low issuance", alongside "strong reporting transparency from detailed disclosures, solid external assurance influence...and good margin ratchet design implied in performance-linked structures."

What unites these achievements is HSBC market leadership, not only through league table performance, but through landmark transactions, first-of-their-kind structures, and innovative approaches that support the expansion of the global sustainable debt ecosystem.