Fair Finance International is a global network assessing, reporting on and campaigning for more responsible investment policies and practices by financial institutions. We enable consumers, policy holders and citizens to make financial institutions more socially responsible, fair, and sustainable by benchmarking their investment policies and practices against international standards in critical areas such as human rights and climate impact.

The aim of Fair Finance International is to initiate a ‘race to the top’ between banks and financial institutions on Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), transparency issues and other human rights standards. Ideally, this brings about a self-reinforcing process whereby banks continuously raise their adherence to those standards, ultimately resulting in more sustainable lending, investments and asset management all over the world.

FFI contributes to banks and investors ESG policies and practices on a wide variety of issues, thereby benefiting a wide audience. It stimulates consumers, bank clients and citizens to critically compare bank’s ESG policies with those of other banks, and to address their bank on its shortcomings.

FFI focuses on the following activities:

•It assesses bank policies regularly, using a rigorous methodology, and scores those policies;
•Through empirical case studies, it compares bank policies with their practices and draws conclusions about the extent to which banks follow their own policies;
•It helps raise public awareness of the role and responsibilities of banks and of the financial sector;
•It engages banks in dialogue, providing them with feedback on their policies, the implementation of their own policies, their transparency, and other concrete sustainability issues;
•It involves consumers and bank clients through (social) media in critically assessing the policy of their bank and encourages them to take action by demanding more sustainable investments, transparency and accountability from their banks.
•It encourages media attention to bank policies and practices by publishing the scores of banks on a wide range of issues and by producing case studies of bank practices.
•It translates proposals for improving banks´ policies into recommendations for more effective regulation through policy work with parliamentarians and ministries.

A key part of our Fair Finance work is our comprehensive and rigorous Methodology. Developed by our network with policy research experts Profundo, and other stakeholders, the methodology is used to assess Financial Institutions' approach to sustainability across 21 influential themes, including corruption, human rights, and climate change. By assessing the publicly available information on how Financial Institutions incorporate sustainability considerations into their operations, we can score them on social responsibility. This data forms the basis of constructive fact-based dialogue across the sector for more responsible and sustainable financial policies and practices. 

The Methodology is aligned to international standards and is designed to be responsive to the countries and contexts a financial institution operates in. Assessments carried out by Fair Finance coalitions usually examine 8 core themes: Climate Change; Corruption; Human Rights; Labour rights; Nature; Tax; Transparency; Gender.

The other optional topics within the assessment are animal welfare; arms; health; financial sector; fisheries; food; forestry; manufacturing; mining; oil and gas; corruption, power generation; consumer protection; financial inclusion; remuneration.

All of the Fair Finance coalitions operating in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe, use this methodology to assess the financial institutions in their countries on a regular basis. Scores are given to the financial institutions and published on the national Fair Finance Guide websites, where consumers and citizens can see how financial institutions compare and take action by sending a complaint or compliment

The Methodology is updated every one to two years to remain current with the latest international standards and to incorporate new data from across our global network. The current Methodology refers to over 422 international standards and criteria and is the 7th update since the first international methodology was developed in 2014.

An overview of the methodology and research process can be found here.

Fair Finance International collaborates and partners with Fair Finance Asia, a regional network of over 90 Asian civil society organizations committed to ensuring that financial institutions’ funding decisions in the region respect the social and environmental well-being of local communities.

Through our cross-collaboration we support sustainable financing initiatives and knowledge sharing, and strengthen the evidence base in cases of harmful investments to better hold financial institutions to account. By connecting these diverse national, regional and global perspectives the Fair Finance network as a whole can advise on and advocate for meaningful changes to financing systems, with positive results for citizens and communities.

Want to know more about our initiative?

Contact: 
Fair Finance International
e-mail: info@fairfinanceguide.org