Refinitiv joins UN Task Force as a data partner to ensure digital financing efforts support sustainable development goals.
Building on its commitment to drive positive change through its data and insight, Refinitiv today announced that it has joined the UN’s Task Force on Digital Financing consisting of leaders from a range of sectors from both developed and developing countries. The global task force is charged with recommending strategies to harness the potential of financial technology that advances theSustainable Development Goals.
The Task Force meets in Davos this week at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is expected to present its preliminary report of recommendations to the Secretary-General in September.
“We believe that by unearthing insight and providing transparency around the link between sustainability and financial performance we can drive positive change in investor behaviour,” said David Craig, CEO of Refinitiv. “Joining the UN Task Force on Digital Financing of Sustainable Development Goals as a data partner represents an opportunity to use our role as change-makers across the financial community to encourage the development of transparent and measurable standards for sustainable finance.”
Refinitiv provides over 40,000 customers with over 40 billion market updates daily in over 190 countries, enabling them to make better informed decisions. By mid-Jan 2019, Refinitiv had already collected, processed and distributed nearly 500 billion data points.
“The Secretary-General’s Task Force is pleased to be working with Refinitiv as a data partner,” said Tillman Bruett, director of the Task Force secretariat. “As we explore ways in which the digitalization of finance can be used to unlock resources for the Sustainable Development Goals, having solid data on the sources, types and direction of funding flows is critical to our work. With Refinitiv’s support, we hope to find opportunities in which small changes to investment criteria or incentives could shift investors and investments toward more sustainable outcomes.”
According to the UN, organisations collectively spend billions trying to prevent financial crime. Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion cost some US $1.26 trillion for developing countries per year; this amount of money could be used to lift those who are living on less than $1.25 a day above $1.25 for at least six years. The estimated amount of money laundered globally from financial crimes such as human trafficking, bribery and fraud in one year is 2 – 5% of global GDP, or $800 billion – $2 trillion in current US dollars.
“Together with the UN Task Force and other partners such as Europol and WEF, we believe that we have a responsibility to promote more effective dialog and information sharing between public and private entities and to provide transparent data that harnesses the transformative powers of FinTech and RegTech to help organizations rethink how they do business and manage risks,” added Craig.
Refinitiv has tools, World-Check, that assist businesses with fulfilling their Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence screening obligations. World-Check Risk intelligence covers over 64 categories of risk including risk associated with environmental and wildlife crimes and with social risks such as child labour and human trafficking. It is critical for businesses to have insight into who they are doing business with in order to disrupt dirty money from illicit acts being funnelled back into the financial system.
Last week Refinitiv pledged support for UN sustainable development goals and committed to continuously lighten its environmental footprint to achieve carbon neutrality by end of 2020. Refinitiv expects to be powered by 100% renewable energy by end of 2020 and is committed to reducing annual carbon emissions every year by an average of 10% over the next five years, becoming a more sustainable business longer term.
Refinitiv is a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter and is committed to putting sustainability at the core of its product offering, as demonstrated by its Diversity & Inclusion Index which ranks the top 100 most diverse and inclusive organizations globally and was used to create the financial industry’s first Inclusion & Diversity ETF fund in partnership with Blackrock.
Refinitiv has been serving the financial industry with ESG data and solutions for over 15 years and offers one of the richest ESG databases in the industry – a fully transparent resource that is trusted by investors and corporates to drive positive impact and provide comprehensive analysis. As members of the UN Global Compact, Refinitiv is part of a community of 9,000+ businesses across 135 countries that are committed to operating with responsible business practices at its core.
