Financial Inclusion for later life borrowers : Issuing a Social Mortgage Bond

LiveMore Mortgages has issued a social bond in alignment with the ICMA Social Bond Principles, supported by a second-party opinion by ISS Corporate Solutions Limited confirming that LiveMore’s mortgage portfolio is a socially sustainable investment. 

LiveMore Mortgages is a UK non-bank specialist lender founded in 2019 to offer later-life mortgage borrowers a better choice of financing option, as market research has demonstrated that later life borrowers are significantly underserved in the market. Older people face effective discrimination from lenders who often rely exclusively on salaries in their affordability assessments, rather than considering a variety of income sources including pensions. Without more flexible financing solutions like LiveMore’s, older borrowers risk becoming mortgage prisoners or face having to sell their home.  Launching a social bond framework was a major step in LiveMore’s ongoing ESG journey to become a market leader in sustainable lending. The lender is exploring further opportunities under the ICMA Green Bond and ICMA Sustainability Bond principles, with a view to launching products which help finance progress towards environmental and social sustainability in the near future.LiveMore’s ambition is to ensure that its products and operations have a positive impact on society.

We believe that there is an opportunity to secure market recognition of the role played by our sector and have established this social bond to provide investors with opportunities to support this vision.