How bonds can drive gender equality

Sustainable investing isn’t just about the environment. A growing segment of the bond market is targeting gender equality head on, using capital as a catalyst for lasting social change. Pendal’s GEORGE BISHAY and MURRAY ACKMAN explain.

• Gender bonds let investors back equality without sacrificing credit quality
• Globally, women are less active in investing in start-ups or small businesses
• Find out more about Pendal’s Responsible Investing capabilities 

GREEN bonds have been around for some time, but bonds focused on gender equality are now generating increased interest, a timely development ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Gender bonds specifically target financing projects designed to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The proceeds from gender bonds are directed towards initiatives that support women’s leadership, entrepreneurship and access to finance to help close the gender gap across various sectors.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched a ‘gender bond’ as one of its core priorities to accelerate progress on gender equality. Pendal is an investor in ADB.

Pendal head of credit and sustainable strategies George Bishay says the Asia Pacific region still experiences some of the widest gaps between women and men across economic participation, financial inclusion, education access, and leadership representation.

ADB’s work recognises that closing these gaps is crucial for improving economic productivity and supporting long-term social stability.

“These bonds with their specific focus on gender allow investors to contribute to these goals whilst maintaining exposure to a high-quality supranational credit,” says Bishay.

Why impact investing?

Aligning investments with personal values to have a positive impact on the world while also generating a financial return.

An example of the type of project that these gender bonds support is the Uzbekistan Inclusive Finance Sector Development Program.

This program aims to expand access to finance for underserved micro and small entrepreneurs, particularly women-led businesses, by strengthening the regulatory environment, improving consumer protection, and enabling new microfinance institutions to operate sustainably.

Murray Ackman, Pendal senior ESG advisory analyst, says Uzbekistan has made progress in broadening financial inclusion and around 60 per cent of adults, according to World Bank data, now hold a financial account, driven in part by rapid growth in digital finance.

“However, women entrepreneurs still face significant barriers in accessing credit,” says Ackman.

Globally, women are about 22 per cent less active in investing in start-ups or small businesses than men (6.9 women per cent versus 9 per cent men), according to the November 2025 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report released by London’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Association.

One in 10 women, compared to one in eight men, started new businesses in 2024, while 10.7 per cent of adult women across the participating countries were engaged in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity.

ADB’s program supports targeted reforms such as increasing the ceiling for microloans, developing responsible lending guidelines, and establishing gender-focused lending quotas to help narrow these gaps and improve opportunities for women to participate in economic life.

This is the type of bond the Regnan Credit Impact Trust and the Pendal Sustainable Australian Fixed Interest Fund are focused on.

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Regnan Credit Impact Trust

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These bonds are issued in Australian dollars, and the fund has no exposure to any project-level credit risk.

“Our exposure is solely to the AAA rated ADB, a multilateral development bank established in 1966 and owned by 69 member countries across the Asia Pacific region,” says Bishay.