RFI Foundation announces new initiative to bring transparency and accountability to responsible finance commitments
The Responsible Finance & Investment Foundation (RFI) publicly announced the creation of the CDIT Initiative with 25 signatories upon its announcement to improve transparency and accountability in the responsible finance industry. The initiative, which was launched on September 20th, during the third Value Based Investors and the SDGs conference organized by the Banco de la Nación Argentina on the sidelines of the G20, aims to bring together financial institutions and civil society to rebuild trust in the financial industry.
The CDIT Initiative (pronounced ‘Seed It’) was developed based on dialogue during a roundtable on “Blockchain for Sustainable & Inclusive Finance” held as part of the RFI Summit 2018 and hosted by Thomson Reuters. The initiative initiated with the European Partners for the Environment (EPE), a Brussels-based environmental multi-stakeholder think tank, will be developed with the 25 signatories.
Underpinning the rationale for the CDIT Initiative is the fact that despite massive growth in financial assets being invested sustainably – $22.89 trillion of assets as of the end of 2016 – trust in the financial system has barely risen since 2009. According to surveys across 28 developed, emerging and developing countries by Edelman, the financial services industry only has the trust of 54% of the population compared to 48% in the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.
The CDIT Initiative tackles two related issues facing the responsible finance industry globally in taking action to rebuild trust. First, financial institutions’ commitments in line with existing responsible finance initiatives have not translated into rebuilding trust with society because of the presence of a small number of institutions who are using the growth of responsible finance to ‘greenwash’ their image.
Second, financial institutions who have recently embraced responsible finance face large informational barriers in translating general responsible finance principles into concrete actions that have been shown to be successful. The CDIT Initiative, a multi-stakeholder partnership between financial institutions and civil society aims to use the power of the blockchain and its ability to build trust within a decentralized network to promote greater trust between the financial sector and civil society.
Blake Goud, CEO of RFI Foundation commented: “We must engage with all the relevant stakeholders including the financial industry, FinTech, blockchain companies and civil society, to create a more inclusive future to ensure that we leave no one behind. Together, we can create a database with time-secured commitments and actions that can improve the effectiveness of existing sustainable & inclusive finance initiatives.
Goud continued: “This provides a real-time way to track what the financial industry has committed to, and how much these commitments are translated into action. We hope to see the development of a shared repository of data on financial industry actions on responsible finance that is treated as a ‘public good’ to be used for the collective benefit of the financial industry and society at large.”
Raymond Van Ermen, Advisor to the President of EPE said: “There is an opportunity for the financial industry to build trust with society through partnerships with civil society organizations who can confer greater legitimacy in the eyes of society than financial institutions can on their own. It is critical for this partnership to be nurtured in order to accelerate the transition from a shareholder- to a stakeholder-oriented model for the financial industry.”
For more information about the CDIT Initiative and to become a signatory, please visit bit.ly/JoinCDIT.
List of Signatories:
Across Red Lines
Bioversity International
Blossom Finance
DVA Consulting Sdn Bhd
Eco-union
Ethis Crowd
European Partners for the Environment
Finocracy
Fondation des transitions / Transitions Foundation
Hutton Financial Management Ltd
Immersion 4
Islamic Markets
Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS)
ixo Foundation
Kottackal
Magni Global Asset Management LLC
MENA FinTech Association
REDmoney Group
RFI Foundation
Simply Ethical
Solid
Swiss Arab Network
thirdACT
UnitedCoin
V4SDG - Visegrad for Sustainability
