This teaching case was developed by Stockholm School of Economics for the Green Bond Technical Assistance Program
Authors:
Dr Hanna Setterberg, Dr Emma Sjöström, No. 2022-001 Johan Nordlund, Dr Martina Björkman Nyqvist
In June 2020, Hanna Holmberg and Camilla Löwenhielm – both fund managers at SEB, one of the largest banks in Sweden – were just ending an intense discussion on the impact funds they were managing. The discussion had been spurred by the previous day's video call with Dirk Dijksma and Daniel Schriber from the impact investment management firm Symbiotics, a long-time partner and supplier of SEB. Dirk and Daniel had proposed adding more green investments to the SEB impact funds, which were currently mostly focused on traditional microfinance. Specifically, the Symbiotics team had presented Hanna and Camilla with an opportunity to invest in a green bond issued by a bank in Sri Lanka: Pan Asia Banking Corporation (Pan Asia). SEB impact funds were already invested in this bank, funding microfinance offerings, but this bond would finance loans in green categories such as home solar systems, energy efficient household appliances and electric vehicles.