Shriram Transport’s social bond success helps Asian debt markets to shift gear

If ever there was a borrower suited to the social bond format, then it is surely India's Shriram Transport Finance Company STFC.

Focused solely on the financing of commercial vehicles, the company's remit is all about supporting those at the bottom of wealth pyramid to lift their income levels. And its very name Shriram Lord Rama references the Indian deity who represents virtue dharma and the fulfilment of moral obligations.

It was, therefore, particularly fitting that it was the BBBB rated credit, which executed the world's first social bond of the year and the decade when it raised $500 million on January 9.