{"id":104241,"date":"2026-07-30T13:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/104241\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:01:10","slug":"koreas-green-bond-market-tops-40-trillion-won-but-trails-major-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/104241\/","title":{"rendered":"Korea’s Green Bond Market Tops 40 Trillion Won but Trails Major Economies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ViewView of the Bank of Korea. Yonhap News<\/p>\n

Korea’s green bond market has grown rapidly in recent years, but its share of the overall bond market remains below half the average of major economies.<\/p>\n

According to a report titled “Review of Domestic Green Bond Issuance Conditions and Policy Implications” released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on the 30th, domestic green bond issuance surged from 3 trillion won in 2018-2020 to 40.6 trillion won in 2021-2025. Over the same period, the number of issuers rose from 12 to 220, and a market once centered on financial institutions expanded to include general corporations and public institutions.<\/p>\n

Still, its presence in the global bond market remains limited. As of last year, green bonds accounted for just 1.8 percent of total bond issuance. That is less than half the 4.0 percent average share among the 41 major countries where green bond issuance exceeded $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Issuers were also concentrated among institutions with high credit ratings such as AAA. The uses of funds were likewise skewed toward a few eco-friendly sectors such as clean transport and renewable energy.<\/p>\n

The BOK analyzed that while green bonds require separate certification and post-issuance reporting procedures compared with ordinary corporate bonds, resulting in additional costs, the actual difference in funding costs is not significant. Certification and reporting costs amount to 5-10 basis points (1 bp = 0.01 percentage point), but when factors such as the government’s interest subsidies, listing fee exemptions, and the “Greenium,” the interest rate advantage of green bonds, are taken into account, the level is similar to that of ordinary bonds.<\/p>\n

In a survey, 86.7 percent of responding institutions said the funding rates of green bonds and ordinary bonds were similar. Most respondents also said issuance costs were “similar or somewhat lower.” In particular, many assessed that the government’s interest subsidy system helped stimulate issuance.<\/p>\n

The biggest reason companies choose green bonds was non-financial effects rather than reduced financing costs. Expressing a commitment to eco-friendly management and enhancing corporate reputation were cited as the main issuance motives, followed by securing ESG investors and responding to policy changes. By contrast, the share expecting direct financial effects, such as lower funding rates, was low.<\/p>\n

However, the burdens during the issuance process were still pointed out as challenges. Companies cited management burdens from external certification and post-issuance reporting, difficulty securing projects that fit the green taxonomy, and complex issuance procedures as major difficulties. For financial institutions, the problem of overlapping review and reporting work was raised, as the standards for green loans and green bonds differ.<\/p>\n

The BOK suggested that “to expand the green bond market, it is necessary to simplify issuance procedures and streamline the reporting system between green bonds and green loans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"View of the Bank of Korea. Yonhap News Korea’s green bond market has grown rapidly in recent years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[845,846,46329,53830,53832,53829,53834,53831,53833],"class_list":["post-104241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bank-of-korea","tag-bank-of-korea","tag-bok","tag-corporate-bonds","tag-esg-investing","tag-green-bond-market-korea","tag-green-bonds","tag-green-taxonomy","tag-greenium","tag-sustainable-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}