Since its June 2022 launch, the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices (CIIP), a Temasek Trust initiative to foster impact investing and practices in Asia and beyond, has been collaborating with like-minded partners to chart new pathways for impact investing.
Key highlights include:
1) Launching Southeast Asia’s first-ever impact-focused financial inclusion report
On the sidelines of Ecosperity 2023 in Singapore, CIIP launched Southeast Asia’s first-ever impact-focused financial inclusion report at the Impact Investing Roundtable. The event was co-organised by CIIP and Temasek. Over 100 practitioners dedicated to social and environmental impact, including entrepreneurs, investors, and intermediaries, convened to discuss opportunities and approaches to accelerate impact investing in emerging markets through collective action.
CIIP’s report, titled “Financial Inclusion in Post-COVID Southeast Asia: Accelerating Impact Beyond Access”, outlines promising investment opportunities and successful business models and practices to accelerate positive impact for underserved regional customers through access to credit. Key report insights include:
- Women are more positively impacted by credit access and more likely to use loans for business and household well-being purposes. Lending to women can thus drive transformational change and be a crucial sector for gender-lens investing.
- There is strong correlation between the depth of impact and high customer satisfaction across regional Financial Service Providers (FSPs). Amidst growing competition, increased customer satisfaction presents a compelling business rationale for embedding impact practices in business operations.
- FSPs can achieve both impact and commercial viability through innovation and cost reduction solutions. FinTechs have shown a promising ability to reduce operating expenses in the last four years. Traditional non-banking finance institutions serving the underserved have also remained profitable, indicating that FSPs can deliver positive impact while targeting commercial returns and maintain business sustainability.
In future phases, CIIP will build on insights from this report to develop regional capacity-building initiatives, generate more insights into effective business models and actions, and dive deeper into some of the issues which require collective action.
Access the report — developed in partnership with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Helicap, with support from 60 Decibels.
2) Announcement of B Lab Global Partnership to Establish B Lab & CIIP Centre of Excellence for Asia in Singapore
B Lab Global and CIIP recognise the central role of businesses in transforming the global economic system and achieving positive impact for people and the planet. Together, by collaborating to establish the B Lab & CIIP Centre of Excellence for Asia, they will leverage their collective strengths to scale the B Corp movement in Asia, mainstreaming a stakeholder model of governance.
 | “The economy across Asia is a significant contributor to the global economy; it is shaping the next phase of globalisation. We want to use this momentum to further catalyse the movement of business as a force for good. Working with our country partners in the region, B Lab Global is excited to begin this partnership with CIIP to expand the reach of our globally applicable standards, strengthen our economic systems change work while supporting the growth of B Corps across Asia, and provide education and training for all businesses.” - Ms. Eleanor Allen, Lead Executive at B Lab Global |
| “CIIP is aligned with B Lab’s mission to spur businesses as a force for good, and we’re delighted to partner with B Lab to scale the B Corp movement in Asia. The Centre will work to ensure the relevance of B Lab’s standards to Asian markets and will build on the combined expertise of B Lab and CIIP in fostering shared knowledge, nurturing a connected community, and catalysing collective positive actions. It will be the go-to organisation for companies that aspire to meet high and rigorous standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.” – Ms. Dawn Chan, CEO at CIIP |  |
The Centre will support the growth of purpose-driven, responsible, and resilient businesses in Asia with training and professional accreditation programmes using B Lab Global’s standards for B Corp Certification. This includes developing gradated, step-by-step programmes and collaborating with academic institutions to support enterprises on their impact journeys. It will also develop research and share insights on stakeholder-focused business models for Asian companies. Such insights will be made accessible to interested companies to empower them in their journey for greater positive impact.
Moving forward, CIIP will continue forging and harnessing such global and regional partnerships to champion industry standards in impact investing and management practices, and build capabilities, with the aim of scaling positive outcomes in impact investing.
Learn more in the announcement here.
Stay Connected!
Access CIIP’s latest insights and tools on their website here. Get their latest updates by following them on LinkedIn.
