Sustainable Finance for Sustainable Development

Giovanni Ferri and Bonnie Annette Acosta

No wpC30, CERBE Working Papers from CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics

Abstract: The paper explores how ethical and sustainable oriented finance is key to reach sustainable development by tackling environmental risk through green finance and showing empirical evidence on the link between finance and inequality. The theory provided puts in the right mind frame to analyze markets, intermediaries and instruments with a sustainable lens to focus on the benefits that have brought to sustainable development. A discussion is presented between different intermediaries and highlights the benefits of cooperative banks especially the close relationship of customers and bank and the resilience it gives to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in difficult times. Different investments strategies are discussed walking through the evolution of Sustainable and Responsible Investing (SRI) funds and diving into the ESG analysis to use as criteria to allocate investments based on environmental, social and governance principles. Microfinance is introduced as a different market that has reached the people at the bottom of the pyramid and highlights the key role it will play to bring financial inclusion. Islamic finance and Fintech are also discussed. Different instruments are presented to understand the current landscape of how different investors are using innovative products to attack social and environmental problems. Finally, five different ways are presented on how policies can strengthen and support sustainable development arguing that the most important is by promoting sustainable footprint certification.

Keywords: Sustainable Finance; SDGs; Green Bonds; Social Bonds; Fintech; Human Centered Business Model. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D15 D25 G18 G24 G28 G38 M14 O35 P43 Q01 Q5 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-fle, nep-isf, nep-mfd and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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