Towards a sustainable finance - G20 appeal
(PDF - 294.6 kb)
On the occasion of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on 24 and 25 September, The International Association of Investors in the Social Economy (INAISE), and the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks (FEBEA), joined by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and the Global Coalition for Responsible Credit (GCRC), demand that the G-20 governments consult with the institutions of social finance and community reinvestment to reform the financial system. They propose 12 measures to ensure that the countries members of G-20 commit immediately to the creation of a new financial system, effective, socially useful and inclusive.
Do we need a Shadow G20 in order to be heard?
The 12 proposals are based on the tested methods and practices of financial institutions members of the four Federations, and founded in research from NCRC and others. Some have already been implemented by G-20 nations. If carried out by all G-20 countries, our proposals would put in place an “international duty to exercise responsibility”. Financial services providers and all related firms would be required to follow clear principles of responsibility and to have transparent mechanisms in place to enable citizen oversight, in order to ensure that these principles guide behavior in practice. Remuneration policies within the financial sector would be reshaped in the light of this goal. This affirmative obligation would include the obligation for financial firms properly to consider financial inclusion and the social and environmental impacts of their actions – and their inactions - on all neighborhoods and households, including those on rural, low income and minority communities and territories when designing and offering financial products and services, consistent with safety and soundness. Our proposals would create stronger regulators to enforce uniform regulations in each G-20 country.
Full press release in English and French is attached.
For any further information:
U.S Contact
Jesse Van Tol, Special Assistant to John Taylor, President & CEO National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC)
727 15th Street, NW, Suite 900 Washington, DC 20005 TEL: (202) 464-2709 | www.ncrc.org
European Contact
Marcel Hipszman, President INAISE
Tel: +33 (0) 6 11 26 17 37
Fabio Salviato, Vice President FEBEA
Tel : +39 34 72 10 01 51
INAISE and FEBEA – Two Federations of social investors and banks
The worldwide social finance / community development sector is composed of hundreds of banks, cooperatives, credit unions, investment funds, micro-lenders and other financial service providers holding well over 150 billion Euros in client assets. At a moment when world financial institutions are reeling from a crisis they helped create, these institutions are growing because of the confidence they inspire in their members and their clients. The regulated banks of the INAISE network alone represent a combined balance sheet of over 10 billion Euros in mid-2009, and have experienced 30% per-year growth since the beginning of the financial crisis.
FEBEA members represent 21 billion Euros of assets. These results confirm the pertinence of our model of prudent management, oriented to long-term growth. They comfort our choice of investments in innovative markets (renewable energy, environmental industry, real estate and agriculture and fair trade) and confirm our belief in finance that serves community development, underserved groups and minorities, culture and entrepreneurship.
The social economy we help to fund provides nearly 10% of all employment in Europe and in the United States. This fact alone explains our duty of vigilance towards the rules and regulations that ensure the security and the credibility of our global financial system.
NCRC AND GCRC – Two Federations of Community organizations and service providers
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) was formed in 1990 to develop and harness the energies of community reinvestment organizations from across the country so as to increase the flow of private capital into underserved communities. It federates more than 600 community-based organizations from across the nation: community development corporations; local and state government agencies; faith-based institutions; community organizing and civil rights groups; minority and women-owned business associations as well as local and social service providers.
NCRC’s National Homeownership Sustainability Fund leverages the expertise of a national network of mortgage finance advisors to prevent foreclosure. Our National Training Academy provides training, and legal and technical assistance. We lead innovative community partnerships to enhance the delivery of financial, technical, and social services to individual consumers, homeowners, and small business, and conduct two financial service advisory councils that include the nation’s largest financial companies. NCRC represents its members before Congress and federal regulatory agencies, supported by research and policy research that has been cited in hundreds of newspapers.
The Global Community Reinvestment Coalition (GCRC) is a cross-national collaboration among groups in 79 countries that include Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Bangladesh, South Africa, Japan, Germany, and the UK. Its purpose is to advance fair and inclusive financial systems, with effective standards and incentives that promote the highest professional benchmarks, best practices and responsive innovations from financial firms, services that are necessary for all. With funding from the Ford Foundation, NCRC and its international partners initiated this work in 2004 via the Global Fair Banking Initiative/GFBI.
We at NCRC and GCRC join INAISE and FEBEA to demand the leaders of the G-20 to commit to rapid implementation of these 12 proposals for regulatory and fiscal change.
