Responsible Finance: Putting Principles to Work

September, 2011     Katharine McKee, Estelle Lahaye, and Antonique Koning

In this paper, we define what we mean by responsible finance, both as an end-state vision and in terms of a pragmatic focus on client protection and social performance management to help achieve our goal. This paper explores the state of responsible finance knowledge and practice, with a focus on three mutually reinforcing client protection strategies:

• Industry self-regulation
• Government regulation and supervision
• Improved consumer capability

It also examines emerging practice to support the basic premise of social performance management--that business processes must be aligned with mission and, ultimately, deliver on the premise of client benefit. It then describes funder roles in promoting responsible finance and closes with observations about future implementation challenges.