UNEP FI and the Principles For Positive Impact Finance

The United Nations Environment Programme Financial Initiative (UNEP FI)

UNEP FI is a partnership between the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the global financial sector to mobilize private sector finance for sustainable development. UNEP FI works with more than 350 members – banks, insurers, and investors – and over 100 supporting institutions – to help create a financial sector that serves people and planet while delivering positive impacts. We aim to inspire, inform and enable financial institutions to improve people's quality of life without compromising that of future generations. By leveraging the UN's role, UNEP FI accelerates sustainable finance.

The Positive Impact Financial Principles

The Positive Impact Finance Principles consist of the following four principles, and one objective of the Principles is to promote positive impact finance for efforts to achieve the SDGs.

PRINCIPLE ONE(Definition): Positive Impact Finance is that which serves to finance Positive Impact Business. It is that which serves to deliver a positive contribution to one or more of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social), once any potential negative impacts to any of the pillars have been duly identified and mitigated. By virtue of this holistic appraisal of sustainability issues, Positive Impact Finance constitutes a direct response to the challenge of financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
PRINCIPLE TWO(Frameworks): To promote the delivery of Positive Impact Finance, entities (financial or non financial) need adequate processes, methodologies, and tools, to identify and monitor the positive impact of the activities, projects, programmes, and/or entities to be financed or invested in.
PRINCIPLE THREE(Transparency): Entities (financial or non financial) providing Positive Impact Finance should provide transparency and disclosure on:

The activities, projects, programs, and/or entities financed considered Positive Impact, the intended positive impacts thereof (as per Principle 1);

The processes they have in place to determine eligibility, and to monitor and to verify impacts (as per Principle 2);

The impacts achieved by the activities, projects, programs, and/or entities financed (as per Principle 4).
PRINCIPLE FOUR(Assessment): The assessment of Positive Impact Finance delivered by entities (financial or non financial), should be based on the actual impacts achieved.

Signing on to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB)

We are pleased to announce that we have become an inaugural signatory to PRB, which was proposed by UNEP FI and came into effect on September 22, 2019. By signing on to the Principles, we have committed to strategically conduct our business in a manner consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change. By signing on to these principles, we are committing to be transparent about both the positive and negative impacts that our banks have on people and the planet, focusing on areas of high impact in our core business, setting targets for specific initiatives, and putting them into action to achieve our global and local SDGs.

September 22, 2019: Signing ceremony held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York with our participation (Source: UNEP FI website)

PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment(511KB)

Alignment with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement

In the Group's sustainability operations, we have set out issues to be addressed, including five major themes, and each of our businesses is working to realize the SDGs related to each of them. One of the five major themes is "climate change," and we will promote initiatives in line with the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure), based on the objectives of the Paris Agreement. In addition, in our total solution services for corporate businesses, we will support our clients' transition to a sustainable direction that is consistent with the realization of the SDGs through our positive impact finance, ESG and integrated reporting consulting, and governance support programs.

Participation in the First Anniversary of the Principles for Responsible Banking

The Principles for Responsible Banking is a commitment by signatories to align their business strategies and practices with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the goals of the Paris Agreement. Since its launch, the number of signatories has grown from 130 to 200, representing about 40% of the world's banking assets (equivalent to more than 1.6 billion customer accounts), and is growing steadily. To commemorate the first anniversary of the launch, 10 digital contents of the signatories' specific initiatives in the form of interviews have been released by UNEP FI.