Today the City of London Corporation will host the Finance for Impact Summit alongside its partners the Impact Investing Institute (III) and KPMG, at which financial services firms with more than £3.6 trillion of assets and assets under management will announce their participation in a Just Transition Finance Challenge. Also launched during the event will be a new industry-led set of recommendations for scaling finance that delivers positive and measurable impact across the financial services sector.

At the Impact Investing Institute, we believe that a place-based impact investing approach creates opportunities for institutional investors to make market-rate, risk-adjusted financial returns while simultaneously delivering a positive social and environmental impact locally. Now, the exceptional performance of Clwyd Pension Fund’s local and impact investments has demonstrated this belief in practice, achieving a rate of return over three times higher than the Fund average and clearly highlighting the opportunities, and benefits, of adopting a place-based approach.    

The Impact Investing Institute has signed a letter to Gary Gensler, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the Commission to prioritise publishing a comprehensive set of human capital management disclosure requirements for U.S.-listed companies.

The UK’s inaugural green gilt issuance, which was supported by the Impact Investing Institute, has been honoured by the Climate Bonds Initiative with their Largest Green Sovereign Bond and the Sovereign Green Market Pioneer awards.   

Fiduciary duty is not incompatible with impact investment – but, unfortunately, this remains a pervasive misconception. Now, with the publication of the judgement in the case of Butler-Sloss v Charity Commission, a decisive step has been taken towards dispelling this myth for good in the £72bn UK charitable foundation sector. 

We warmly welcome HM Treasury’s launch of the UK Transition Plan Taskforce and look forward to working as part of the Taskforce’s Delivery Group to develop the gold standard for UK companies’ climate transition plans. 

All war, wherever in the world it takes place, imposes huge costs and suffering, particularly on civilians. At this time, the Impact Investing Institute shares the world’s horror at the events unfolding in Ukraine and the suffering the invasion by Russia’s armed forces has brought to everybody in Ukraine.

The Impact Investing Institute has today released a new report with the first estimate of the total size of the UK’s market for impact investment – investment which delivers a positive, measurable social and environmental benefit alongside a financial return. The research, delivered in collaboration with EY, funded by DCMS with additional support from Big Society Capital, estimates the size of the market at £58bn in 2020, and demonstrates the growing importance of this segment of the capital markets, which is fast moving into the mainstream

The Impact Investing Institute welcomes the publication of the landmark Levelling Up White Paper and the ambitious, new approach it sets out, designed to re-focus Government spending on tackling place-based inequalities.

The Impact Taskforce, the independent, industry-led taskforce supported by the G7 Presidency, has released its recommendations aimed at financing a Just Transition to a climate-secure future for all. The recommendations are focused on transforming the quality and transparency of information on the impact of investment decisions and deploying financing, especially in emerging markets, that delivers positive social and environmental impact.

The Leadership Council, in partnership with the charity pilotlight, have published a new report, The Great British Talent Swap, calling for a sharing of talent and experience between the charitable and commercial sectors.

In March 2021, Hyde Housing and M&G Real Estate announced a new partnership to build around 2,000 high quality, sustainable shared ownership homes. At the launch of the report “Is there an investment case for social and affordable housing in the UK?”, Catherine Raynsford, Director of Stakeholder and Investor Relations at Hyde Housing, outlined the main features of this successful partnership.