B Corp Finance Coalition calls for higher stakeholder accountability
Founding members of new coalition pledge to share best practices on stexplore plans to share advice
The B Corp Finance Coalition UK has today called on finance firms to commit themselves to “higher stakeholder accountability”, urging firms to amend their constitutional documents to “align with broader stakeholder needs”.
The B Corp Finance Coalition UK comprises 11 certified B Corporations from across the UK’s finance industry, including banks, wealth managers, and asset managers.
At an event on the sidelines of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, the group said the founding members of coalition, which includes EQ Investors, Montanaro Asset Management, Tribe Impact Capital, and Coutts, have amended their articles of association to make stakeholder alignment formally part of directors’ duties.
“Through this, they hold their directors responsible for the delivery of that purpose and create a mechanism that enables true accountability,” the group said in a press release.
The coalition went on to say that CEOs and founders from the group are “offering to share approach, best practice and learnings” with other CEOs and board members.
“The coalition believes only through radical collaboration can the financial sector deliver rapid, meaningful and lasting change,” it said.
Amy Clarke, co-founder at Tribe Impact Capital, said that changes in corporate governance “hold the key to profound systemic change”.
“What we are proposing could be considered the glue that binds the work of the UN SDGs, TCFD, SBTI, IFRS Foundation (and many more) together to ensure purpose and stakeholder outcomes are core to our businesses and that directors duties are automatically tethered to the purpose outlined in our constitutions,” she said.
Cedric Durant des Aulnois, CEO at Montanaro Asset Management, added that the UK, as a leading financial centre, is well placed to show that stakeholder capitalism can play a vital role in helping address the world’s most pressing issues.”
The move comes at the end of a week that has seen a raft of announcements from across the financial community designed to enhance sustainability reporting and accelerate the transition to net zero emissions.
Earlier in the week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Financial Conduct Authority unveiled plans for a series of new standards and requirements, which would mandate large listed firms to develop net zero strategies and seek to crack down on ‘greenwashing’ within the investment sector.
You can read Investment’s Week‘s coverage of the launch event via our IW COP26 blog here.
This article first appeared at Investment Week.
