Sustainability-Linked Loans

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L&Q builds and rents out affordable housing in London and surrounding areas.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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By Jacqueline Poh

March 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM UTC

Corrected

March 6, 2019 at 9:01 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the April 9, 2019 issue of Markets.

When British housing association London & Quadrant needed a 100 million-pound ($132 million) loan last year, its bank offered something unusually generous: A discount on interest if L&Q met an annual target of helping 600 unemployed residents find work.

Eight months later, L&Q, which builds and rents out affordable housing in London, is already more than 75 percent of the way there, putting it on course to unlock savings from its lender, BNP Paribas SA.