International Lecture Week Series: Social Finance & Impact Investment

As part of international lecture week series, on 22 October 2020, our program hosted a public lecture session entitled Social Finance & Impact Investment, delivered by Dr. Piotr Sieradzan, CFA from Kozminski Executive Business School, Poland. In this session, Dr. Piotr shared his thoughts on ideas and controversies surrounding social finance and impact investment. The term social finance means an approach to managing money which delivers a social dividend and an economic return. Impact investing itself is a part of SRI (socially responsible investments) with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. The three factors that are used to measure company’s sustainability and social impact are environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). There are several ways to implement social impact investment, i.e. by the clients/ investors themselves, by the fund managers, or enforcement by laws. There are several issues surrounding social finance and impact investment, such as no existence of regulation regarding this in some countries, the lack of competence from financial managers, and the possibility of manipulation to attract the fund.

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