This case study shows how Scotiabank partnered with survivor support organisations to improve financial access for modern slavery survivors. By piloting a simplified, risk-based customer due diligence approach, the bank balanced regulatory compliance with social inclusion, demonstrating a practical model for inclusive banking within existing know-your-customer (KYC) frameworks.

This systematic review of 127 studies finds consistent evidence that climate change worsens economic inequality, disproportionately affecting poorer countries and households. Impacts arise across sectors and regions via channels such as reduced labour productivity and agricultural losses, with strong agreement that effects are regressive.

The report assesses historical warming’s effects on national income by combining climate model counterfactuals with temperature–growth estimates. It finds warming has likely reduced GDP in warmer, lower-income countries and moderately benefited some cooler, higher-income economies, contributing to increased between-country economic inequality since 1961.

The report outlines guidelines for financial institutions to integrate gender perspectives across governance, management, staffing, communications, and product design. It promotes data-driven policies, bias reduction, inclusive culture, tailored financial solutions for women, and strategic partnerships to enhance women’s financial inclusion and strengthen institutional performance.

This month’s sustainability roundup traces a rapidly evolving landscape in climate finance and accountability, spotlighting the weaknesses exposed by Hurricane Melissa’s disaster-risk finance system alongside new policy frameworks now reshaping sustainable investment. It highlights how vulnerable nations continue to bear the costs of climate impacts, how regulatory reforms such as Australia’s 2035 emissions target and global disclosure regimes are embedding accountability, and how renewed scrutiny of carbon markets is driving the search for credible, incentive-based pathways to real decarbonisation.

New research on Australia’s ASX 300 companies finds that diversity within board committees, particularly in terms of gender, independence, and professional background, leads to smarter and more efficient investment decisions. The study shows that diverse committees make more disciplined and forward-looking choices, linking inclusion directly to better financial performance and long-term value creation.

This paper, “ESG: A Panacea for Market Power?” by Philip Bond and Doron Levit (2024), examines how firms’ social (“S”) ESG policies affect market competition. It finds that moderate ESG actions such as fairer treatment of workers or customers can reduce market power and improve welfare, while overly aggressive policies harm both firms and stakeholders. The authors show that competition in ESG policies among socially minded firms can deliver efficient, welfare-maximising outcomes, linking ESG adoption to market structure, corporate governance models, and executive incentives.

This report by Roots of Impact (2024) reviews eight years of experience implementing Impact-Linked Finance (ILF), a structuring approach that rewards measurable social or environmental outcomes by linking financial terms to impact performance. It outlines ILF’s evolution, design principles, effectiveness benchmarks, and opportunities to scale through collaboration and new impact-linked instruments.

The report introduces the concept of Regenerative Good Growth (RGG) as an alternative to extractive GDP-focused models. It argues that economic progress should regenerate five renewable capitals, natural, social, human, cultural, and sustainable physical, while ensuring fairness, engagement, and reduced environmental harm. RGG promotes inclusive, low-carbon, and nature-positive transitions through diverse public participation.

This report summarises global financing trends for sustainable development, noting investment gaps in developing economies, heightened debt vulnerabilities, and the need for coordinated reforms. It highlights the importance of blended finance, resilience-building, and aligning the international financial architecture to better support inclusive and sustainable growth.

This report presents an updated “Doughnut” framework, tracking 35 social and ecological indicators from 2000–2022. Findings show only modest progress on reducing deprivation, while ecological overshoot has worsened, with wealthier nations driving most impacts. The study highlights stark inequalities and calls for regenerative, distributive economic approaches.

This report from the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change analyses place-based just transition policies in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan. It outlines market-specific policy baselines, labour and social dynamics, financing needs and case studies, providing investors and policymakers with insights into ensuring equitable low-carbon transitions in Asia.

This report develops a 130-year index (ESIX) measuring public attention to environmental and social issues in business using historical news data. Findings show that such attention rises during instability (social) or prosperity (environmental), depresses short-term investment efficiency, but improves investment outcomes over longer horizons.

DBS Bank India is a digital-led universal bank offering personal, SME, corporate and wealth management services. Features include resident and non-resident (NRI) savings and fixed deposit accounts, remittance, loans, digital payments and credit/debit card solutions. Positions as Asia’s safest bank with a wide India branch network.

This report analyses the relationship between sovereign ESG risks and credit risk across 70 countries. Using FTSE Russell/Beyond Ratings data and five-year CDS spreads, it finds stronger financial materiality of ESG risks in emerging and high-yield markets, particularly for social and governance factors, with weaker results for environmental risks.

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