“Put sustainability at the heart of the financial system”. It is written in the first report, just published, of the group of twenty experts set up in December by the European Commission to develop an organic strategy for the promotion of SRI (socially responsible investing) finance, that is, based on sustainable and responsible investments.
Thanks to 53 percent of the 23 trillion dollars of assets professionally managed in the world with ESG (Environmental, social and governance) criteria, Europe holds an important world record with the United States stagnating at 38 percent. The European Commission, through the twenty experts including an Italian, Flavia Micilotta, director of Eurosif, intends not only to consolidate the primacy but above all to insert those criteria and principles into the financial system in a stable manner. The goal is that ESG factors are routinely used to assess, manage and forecast risks in both the short and long term and also that the direct participation of stakeholders becomes a central element in strategic and regulatory development.
The working group follows the line drawn by the United Nations Organization which, already in 2006, had promoted six princes, known as Pri (Principles for responsible investment) subscribed, over the years, by 1380 companies in the financial industry for a total of 59 trillion assets under management (data at the end of 2015). These are rules that commit to introducing ESG issues in the analysis and investment processes, in one's own corporate policies and practices, in seeking transparency on these factors, in promoting social responsibility in the industry, in cooperating on this front and documenting the activities and progress.
After all, the increased awareness of sustainability issues is known to most - but less to the upper echelons of global finance - and increasingly widespread among consumers and families who express a more or less latent demand for sustainable products and production processes. A paradigm shift that we hope will lead many companies to adopt an ethical and sustainability rating. Associating your company with sustainability today becomes a necessary step to stay on the market of the future. The goal for the financial sector to do more to contribute to a different growth for an economic model that shifts the current allocation of resources from a path that the report itself defines as "unsustainable" to a "sustainable" one, is no longer ambitious nor unrealistic, but, after the economic crisis, it is a real necessity.
The banking system is also naturally involved in this transformation and also with respect to it, the crisis has demonstrated the need to find the keystone to face the future of the economy in the principles of sustainability. Banking cooperation, essential for keeping the productive and entrepreneurial fabric so severely tested, has always and by its nature been part of that path of sustainability as it bases the credit intermediation activity on the link with the territory, with local communities, with the real economy. In fact, it is no coincidence that the People's Banks, despite the economic adversities of recent years, have been a fundamental element in enabling Small and Medium Enterprises to continue to carry out their activities by mitigating and mitigating the repercussions of the crisis which, otherwise, would been even harder and more painful.
Standard Ethics, after an analysis of various aspects relating to both governance and corporate policies, finding a positive response and attention to the indications from the EU, the OECD, and the UN, assigned to Italian People's Banks “EE” level rating with positive outlook, a level 2 notches higher than the average of the national banking system and of many foreign banks. The acknowledgment rewarded the attention and responses provided on the subject of minority shareholders' rights, remuneration of senior bodies, conflicts of interest and participation in shareholders' meetings. An acknowledgment also to the cooperative form which continues to be the most suitable for maintaining and strengthening the role of territorial bank. Also for this reason, in the transformation of the corporate culture made mandatory, beyond any moral judgment, by the crisis, the relaunch of the real economy and the return to acceptable employment rates will find a protagonist in the system of cooperative banks and in the territory as demonstrated by its consistency and diffusion in the world.
**The author is the Secretary General of Assopopolari
