MuniFin’s CEO Esa Kallio and Executive Vice President Aku Dunderfelt discuss the year 2020 at MuniFin.
Overall growth and very strong investor interest in social finance
In 2020, the demand for funding among MuniFin customers increased substantially. Our finance for new projects totalled EUR 4,699 million, increasing by as much as 52% from 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted us to quickly adapt to remote work, but we were able to serve our customers without interruptions by creating new customer service channels and expanding our digital services.
“The economic reports by our chief economist and the training on our digital services have been highly popular”, Kallio notes.
The social finance we launched in early 2020 received a highly positive reception, and we granted a total of 589 million euros across 27 projects. We also issued the first Nordic social bond in the SSA category for international investors. The social bond had a EUR 500 million issue size and was overbooked by nearly four times, signalling overwhelming demand for this product.
Even though capital markets were unstable, particularly in the spring, our own funding continued without interruption throughout 2020. Our long-term funding rose to EUR 11 billion.
“The success of our benchmark bonds during this period of uncertainty shows that we have a successful funding strategy and good reputation in the international capital market. The year 2020 further highlighted MuniFin’s core mandate”, says Kallio happily.
In 2020, we continued to reform our organisation and operating practices. We will continue to further develop our operations and digital services.
“In all we do, we aim to provide even better and even more efficient service for our customers”, Kallio concludes.
Further information:
Heidi Penttinen, Communications Specialist, Tel. +358 45 2139 3229