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PRESS RELEASE

On Thursday, March 25 at Bercy, a marketplace initiative on impact finance was launched by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, Olivia Grégoire, Secretary of State for the Social, Solidarity and Responsible Economy, and Thierry Déau, Chairman of Finance for Tomorrow. Its aim is to make Paris the world’s leading financial center for impact finance.

The founding event ‘Impact finance: fad or fundamental trend in sustainable finance?’ gave impetus to the consolidation and development of impact finance in the Paris marketplace by bringing together all the players in this rapidly developing field: asset managers, investors, banks, associations and academics.

For several years now, sustainable finance has been promising to combine profitability and sustainability. A branch of sustainable finance, impact finance aims to achieve tangible performance on certain extra-financial factors in addition to financial profitability. Whereas sustainable finance and ESG reporting focus on an obligation of means, impact finance emphasizes an obligation of results.

Measuring impact is proving to be a difficult exercise, for which the methodological foundations are not yet sufficiently robust. These emerging approaches face a number of challenges, such as collecting reliable data at high cost, finding a link between impact and socially responsible investment (SRI), and having to take into account the European regulatory framework currently being drawn up. The protection of savers and investors will necessarily be at the heart of any regulation.

The objectives of the taskforce set up and launched today, whose work will take place under the aegis of Finance for Tomorrow, are :

  • to establish a common definition of impact finance, based on existing work, beyond a set of pre-requisites that already allow us to identify the players involved (intentionality, additionality, measurement);
  • define impact measurement methodologies based on the most relevant existing methodologies;
  • draw up recommendations to ensure France’s leadership in sustainable finance in general and impact finance in particular;
  • promote existing expertise in the Paris marketplace.

 

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For Bruno Le Maire: Finance is the sinews of war, an essential tool for meeting our environmental and social challenges. It has a duty to do so, and the means to do so. My role as Minister of the Economy and Finance is to do everything in my power to facilitate the development of impact finance and enable savers to invest in products that make sense and meet their expectations.

Olivia Gregoire emphasizes: ‘ The Paris marketplace, a pioneer in ESG, has everything it takes to become the world leader in impact finance. I want to promote an ambitious vision of impact finance. This founding event is the first step in a marketplace-wide initiative. The aim is to get the players involved talking to each other and agreeing on a common definition and shared grammar. France has been a pioneer in this field in Europe for many years, and we must do all we can to remain so.

Augustin de Romanet: ‘The Paris financial center is committed to the development of impact finance. We have 3 objectives: to extend the approach to all players, to encourage the emergence of initiatives before regulating them, and finally to Europeanize our approach’

Thierry Déau says: ‘Today’s conference marks a decisive new stage in the development of impact finance in France, equipping it with robust tools and methodologies, and showcasing French expertise. Impact finance is a new chapter for ESG, which should help to meet the challenges of transforming the financial sector and the expectations of citizens and savers. The work we are launching within Finance for Tomorrow is a sign of our commitment and of the need to unite all the players in the Paris marketplace around a common vision and language. I’m delighted to be able to launch this essential project with the strong support of Olivia Grégoire and our ecosystem.

 

Download the press release

Download the press release