Impact bonds enter main market with Stockholm diabetes deal

Region Stockholm brought social impact bonds into the mainstream European capital markets this week, with a transaction aimed at preventing people from developing diabetes. With healthcare financing top of the agenda in capital markets because of Covid-19, the deal raises the prospect that other issuers could turn to outcome-based financing. Frank Jackman and Jon Hay report.
Social impact bonds were invented in 2010, with a deal in Peterborough, England, to reduce reoffending among ex-prisoners. Since then, they have been used hundreds of times to finance a wide variety of social and environmental projects.
These deals are typically small and bespoke. Mainstream capital markets issuers ...Already a subscriber? Login