The Republic of Iceland announced it has sold a “gender bond” in the amount of €50 million.

The bond bears a 3.4% fixed rate coupon and has a 3-year maturity.

Gender bonds are social bonds where proceeds are channeled to finance activities promoting women’s empowerment or gender equality.

Such bonds aim to achieve development impact for groups of women such as entrepreneurs.

“The bonds are issued off an Annex to Iceland’s Sustainable Financing Framework on Financing for Gender Equality and are the first of its kind for this type of issuer as no sovereign has previously issued labelled gender bonds,” said the Iceland government.

“The transaction was a private placement issued to Franklin Templeton, solely arranged by BNP Paribas.”