The pace at which firms in the financial sector have begun integrating stakeholder concerns into their core business activities is startling.
It is not that corporate responsibility was unknown to financial firms ten years ago. Then, major financial centres had regulations to protect the interests of market participants and consumers of financial services. For decades, employment law has tried to protect their workers from discrimination on the grounds of gender or race, and ethical funds and faith-based investors have been cutting the path towards responsible investment.
Nevertheless, financial firms embarked on the responsibility trail from a low base. Sustainable Asset Management’s 2005 annual review of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index found the financial sector still below average on all generic criteria, and bottom of the heap on environmental and labour practices.
A surge in public interest in the sector’s impacts over the last ten years has prompted a broadening and a deepening of responsibility approaches. The last three years in particular have transformed the responsibility landscape beyond recognition.
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