FAB raises $272M in MENA's first digital green bond
What's the deal? First Abu Dhabi BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (FAB) has issued US$255.8M in three-year digitally native green notes, the first digital green bond from the Middle East and North Africa. The notes carry a 5.75% coupon, mature in October 2029, and are rated AA-/Aa3/AA- by Fitch, Moody's, and S&P.
Who's involved? Emirates NBDDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, FAB, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of ChinaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (Asia), and Standard Chartered acted as joint lead managers. DentonsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → advised FAB on the issuance, which falls under its $30 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme.
Why now? The deal pairs two growing themes in regional debt markets: sustainable finance and digitally native securities. It builds on FAB's inaugural $100 million digital bond in 2025, which used HSBC's Orion platform; this issue shifts to EuroclearDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (D-FMI).
What's the endgame? Proceeds will fund eligible green projects under FAB's sustainable finance framework. "Building on our inaugural digital bond in 2025, we are demonstrating how digital infrastructure can advance sustainable finance through greater automation and more efficient execution," said Lars Kramer, group chief financial officer at FAB.
By the numbers: D-FMI uses distributed ledger technology to issue and settle securities while keeping standard bond conventions, including T+2 settlement. The notes are listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where FAB remains the only issuer with digital bonds. As of H1 2026, the bank had facilitated US$101B in sustainable financing, 79% of its US$127.9B target for 2030.
The signal: The issuance arrives amid a weaker GCC sustainable-debt market, with issuance down 44% year on year in the first nine months of 2026. FAB's deal is a modest extension of its earlier digital-bond experiment rather than proof of broad regional adoption — but it marks a step in merging tokenised infrastructure with green finance.
Read more: dentons.com
Image credit: Governo do Estado de São Paulo
