Last week witnessed a historic step forward for microfinance — perhaps not quite on the scale of Pocantico, but earth-shaking nonetheless. Forty investors signed the new Principles for Investors in Inclusive Finance, which were launched at the second annual Responsible Finance Forum in The Hague. “Investors in microfinance can’t act like absentee landlords, [...]

Invitation aux membres de SFG - Midi de la finance, jeudi 27 janvier 2011, 12h00-14h00, Cercle de la Terrasse, 4 rue Eynard, Genève.
What role private finance can play in ensuring the move to a low carbon economy? How can investors feed into the policy process into the run-up to COP17 in Durban?
The climate negotiations in [...]

This quarterly publication is a synthesis of Cedrus Partners’ Sustainable Investments (SI) proprietary database, called ‘Cedrus Sustainable Funds Market’. This quantitative overview aims at giving an outline of the performance of each type of SI funds. Therefore, it is a complement to more academic studies on the subject. More…
Source: Cedrus Partners

The shareholder resolution calling for BP to assess its operations in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year has been dropped. Instead the investors hope to engage with the company – using “tried and tested local stewardship approaches” – in the hope that the company demonstrates it is [...]

En 2011, au moins 33 des cent plus grandes sociétés cotées en Suisse proposeront le vote consultatif du rapport ou du système de rémunération lors de leur assemblée générale. Ce sont treize sociétés de plus que l’année précédente. Cette progression est notamment due aux efforts de sensibilisation menés par la Fondation Ethos, elle démontre un [...]

The much-touted biofuel crop jatropha is neither a profitable nor a sustainable investment, according to a new report released by Friends of the EarthInternational today. Jatropha: money doesn’t grow on trees warns investors away from jatropha – a shrub being increasingly planted for its oil-producing fruits and ability to survive in arid conditions – stating [...]

L’armement est aujourd’hui un secteur très peu règlementé au plan international mais cela pourrait changer avec l’adoption par les Nations-Unies du premier Traité sur le commerce des Armes en 2012. Les ONG se mobilisent, le secteur bancaire aussi puisque des « lignes directrices pour les services financiers à destination de l’industrie de l’armement » viennent [...]

Le Parlement a adopté jeudi 13 janvier un texte qui impose un quota de femmes dans les conseils d’administration des grandes entreprises -20% d’ici janvier 2014 et 40% d’ici janvier 2017. 650 sociétés cotées sont concernées, ainsi que les sociétés employant au moins 500 salariés ou réalisant un chiffre d’affaires d’au [...]

By Muhammad Yunus. In the 1970s, when I began working here on what would eventually be called “microcredit,” one of my goals was to eliminate the presence of loan sharks who grow rich by preying on the poor. In 1983, I founded Grameen Bank to provide small loans that people, especially poor [...]

In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the UN PRI and the UN Global Compact, onValues has today published a report focusing on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues involved in different types of commodities investments.  The report shows that the issues at stake and available management [...]