First Abu Dhabi Bank issued and settled AED1 billion of three-year digitally native green notes through Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure. The notes were priced on 13 October at an interest rate of 5.75% and settled on 15 October. They mature on 15 October 2029. FAB described the transaction as the first digital green bond from the Middle East and North Africa.
The three-year notes are FAB’s second digital bond due to be listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, following an inaugural digital issuance in 2025. Enterprise had reported before settlement that the notes were priced 75 basis points above the three-year AED swap rate. The bank’s completed-issuance announcement supplied the previously undisclosed size, coupon and maturity. Proceeds are intended for projects with environmental or climate benefits.
TOKENISED GREEN FUNDING
Euroclear says its D-FMI uses distributed-ledger technology to issue, distribute and settle digitally native securities. The infrastructure connects to Euroclear Bank’s established secondary-market services. That design allows issuers and investors to use digital issuance while retaining access to familiar trading and liquidity-management arrangements.
FAB and Standard Chartered acted as digitally native note structurers. Emirates NBD, FAB, HSBC, ICBC Asia and Standard Chartered were joint lead managers, while Citibank’s London branch acted as fiscal agent and digitally native notes agent. The transaction therefore combined local-currency funding, a green use-of-proceeds framework and digital capital-markets infrastructure.
DOMESTIC MARKET TEST
FAB said it had facilitated AED395 billion of sustainable and transition financing by the end of June 2026, equivalent to 79% of its AED500 billion target for 2030. The new notes extend that programme into a digitally native dirham instrument. Enterprise noted that Gulf bank green debt has generally been issued in dollars and listed offshore.
The next milestones are admission to trading on ADX, allocation reporting under FAB’s sustainable-finance framework and evidence of secondary-market activity. Those disclosures will show whether the issue broadens demand for dirham green debt beyond FAB’s existing investor base. Repeat digital issuance by FAB or other regional banks would provide a further test of the infrastructure’s funding and settlement benefits.