Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Bloomberg today announced the 2017 Financial Services Gender-Equality Index (BFGEI), providing investors and organizations with unique insight into the statistics, policies, product offerings and external engagement driving 52 firms’ commitment to building gender-equal workplaces. Bloomberg also introduced a Fixed Income Gender-Equality Index, representing investment grade debt issued by the 2017 BFGEI member firms.

The bank’s joint programme is part of its Shared Growth Ambition strategy to improve lives while providing returns to shareholders. Tom Idle reports…

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), NeighborWorks® America and its network member Neighborhood Housing Services of Southern Nevada today announced the NeighborhoodLIFT® program is expanding to Las Vegas Valley with a $5.55 million commitment by Wells Fargo to boost homeownership.

GRID Alternatives, America’s largest nonprofit solar developer, today announced the Wells Fargo Foundation has committed to a four-year, $2 million grant to expand low-income solar access. The grant builds on more than $4 million Wells Fargo has invested in GRID Alternatives since 2008, catalyzing the national expansion of GRID’s work bringing solar power and job training to disadvantaged communities.

Once considered the purview of Jetsons-era futurescapes, smart street systems have made the transition from science fiction to real city council planning agendas. Sensor-laden Wi-Fi kiosks, smart streetlights, EV charging stations and integrated urban mobility systems are generating rising interest as cities demand greater connectivity, resource efficiency, enhanced public safety and more effective municipal service delivery.

Brand Finance has recently released its analysis of the brand strength for the world’s 500 top banks. This annual review uses Brand Finance’s royalty relief methodology to estimate how much of a bank’s market value derives from its brand assets.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded two EcoDistricts partners with Choice Neighborhood Implementation grants in December 2016. Denver, Colorado’s Sun Valley Ecodistrict and St. Louis, Missouri’s Near North Side neighborhood each received nearly $30 million. The two historically marginalized communities have purposefully taken a district-scale approach to develop highly inclusive, stakeholder-driven development plans.

What happens when three bright and motivated women put their heads together to brainstorm new approaches to challenging problems? Major creativity and production.

Bank of Nova Scotia has launched “digital factories” in five countries in a bid to attract top tech talent and speed up the development of online and mobile banking solutions.

VisionFund International, World Vision's network of over 30 microfinance institutions across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, presents its 2016 Social Performance Report.