Social Bond Impact Reporting: AIR develops a new methodology for Haspa
AIR supported Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) in developing an innovative methodology for its first Social Bond Allocation and Impact Report.
The approach follows the recommendations of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) for portfolio-level Social Bond reporting. It links the use of proceeds to the potential social impact of the financed activities, with a clear regional focus on Hamburg. For this, it is built on an Input–Output–Outcome–Impact logic with sector-specific indicators pragmatically tailored to the available data and using suitable proxies derived from reliable public sources. This enables impact reporting that is transparent, meaningful, and methodologically robust. The report was independently reviewed by ISS ESG, which assessed it as “best market practice.”
The project not only established a methodological foundation for Haspa’s ongoing Social Bond reporting but also generated valuable insights for advancing practical impact reporting more broadly. It demonstrates how credible and decision-relevant impact-reporting approaches can be developed under the data constraints that typically characterise portfolio-level impact reporting in practice. AIR pursues this approach for Social Bonds and other impact-oriented financial products and continues to develop it further together with interested financial institutions.
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