The ASFI was launched in March this year to help establish a roadmap to realign the finance sector with greater social, environmental and economic outcomes for the country.
The initiative is a voluntary led initiative involving banks, insurance companies, super funds and other key academic, investment and finance sector representatives.
One of the first tasks of the initiative was to create technical working groups that, together with the steering committee, would ultimately be responsible for delivering a sustainable finance roadmap for Australia in 2020.
The four working groups have been structured with varied focuses to identify how the finance sector can better align with the needs of the 21st century.
- Technical Working Group 1: Mobilising capital to deliver on our sustainability challenges and opportunities
- Technical Working Group 2: Creating a more sustainable, resilient and stable finance system by embedding sustainability into systems, markets, products and services to better account for risk and impact
- Technical Working Group 3: Making better-informed financial decisions by enhancing disclosures and transparency
- Technical Working Group 4: Meeting community and consumer expectations and putting people at the centre of finance’s purpose
There is also a coordinated working group to deliver practical recommendations on over-arching and cross-cutting issues not captured in the technical working groups.
With the establishment of these groups, over 130 individuals representing over 80 organisations are participating in this process.
Co-chair of the initiative Jackie Johnson said having so many individuals collaborate on the project meant that all parts of the financial services industry would be included in the 2020 roadmap.
“ASFI’s technical working groups will ensure that the final roadmap that we will deliver in 2020 is based on the considered input from all parts of the financial services industry as well as civil society,” she said.
Co-chair and chief executive of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia Simon O’Connor said this was a key milestone and looked forward to what the group could achieve.
“This is another key milestone for ASFI and the fact that ASFI has been able to harness the talent and passions of over 130 individuals and commitment of 80 individual organisations demonstrates the real desire within the finance sector to lead change that delivers greater social, environmental and economic outcomes for Australians,” he said.
All the major banks have representatives on the working groups, including representatives from organisations like AMP Capital, BT Financial Group, QBE Insurance Group, AustralianSuper and IAG.
