Forging ties to promote a new approach to financing

Credit Suisse is involved in a number of industry organizations seeking to promote and catalyze sustainable and impact financing. Our approach includes helping to set industry standards and participating in new sustainability initiatives worldwide.

Through these memberships, we can contribute to the dialogue on developments in the sustainable investment space. For instance, we are a member of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), which seeks to accelerate the development of the impact investing industry by facilitating knowledge exchange, highlighting innovative investment approaches and producing tools and resources for market participants.

In Switzerland, we are also involved in organizations such as Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF) and Sustainable Finance Geneva, which seek to strengthen the position of Switzerland in the global market for sustainable finance by informing, educating and catalyzing growth.

Credit Suisse believes that transparency and a common understanding of standards in impact investing are crucial to developing this market. Due to the lack of common standards and fund manager guidelines for best practice in the impact investment area, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) introduced the Operating Principles for Impact Management in 2019. As one of the original signatories, Credit Suisse in 2020 published its methodology and impact AuM according to the IFC’s nine impact principles. Our impact management systems have received independent assurance from KPMG, and have been confirmed to align with the Operating Principles.

In 2020, Credit Suisse Asset Management became a member of Climate Action 100+, an industry-wide investor initiative committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change. Credit Suisse also acts as a commissioner for the Energy Transitions Commission, a coalition of leaders from across the energy landscape committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

In corporate governance and reporting industry initiatives, Credit Suisse became one of the initial working group members of the Task Force for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), which aims to develop a framework for the reporting, metrics and data disclosure of global financial institutions to enable those institutions to better understand their risks, dependencies and impacts on nature. We also became a member of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), an investor-led organization to promote effective standards of corporate governance to advance sustainable economies and efficient markets.

Additionally, we joined the FAIRR Initiative, a collaborative investor network that aims to raise awareness of the significant ESG risks and opportunities in sustainable agriculture and related supply chains.

We are also part of the Financial Services Task Force of the Sustainable Market Initiative, which was launched in 2020 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales together with the World Economic Forum. The initiative seeks to kick-start bold and imaginative action through programs and industry roundtables aimed at creating global engagement in sustainable markets.