The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) has officially launched today to address the financial risks to companies and institutions from global inequality.
The global taskforce is co-chaired by Peter Bakker, Sharan Burrow, Arunma Oteh, and Gabriela Ramos who will lead the 30-member steering committee to deliver its goal of incentivising business and financial practices that create fairer, stronger societies and economies.
See also: Investors ‘turn blind eye’ to social risks
They will create a framework – similar to that created with the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – that will assist companies in disclosing more effectively on impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities related to social issues, including inequality.
“Access to high quality information about the effects of inequality will allow market participants to understand and better manage social risks,” explained co-chair Bakker, who is also president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. “In the last decade we have seen how high-quality disclosures can make climate change an important part of financial decision making. We need to do the same for inequality and the social issues at its root cause.”
Oteh, co-chair and academic at the University of Oxford and former Treasurer of the World Bank, added: “Given the catalytic impact to society and to other challenges such as climate, the TISFD will ensure that tackling inequalities is a top priority for the public and private sectors alike.
“It will not only bring to bear the power of global financial systems and collective action to establish universally accepted disclosure standards that champion transparency, but also redefine reporting in ways that ensure that social and inequality risks are adequately accounted for.”
Founding partners for the TISFD include the Principles for Responsible Investment, Manulife, the World Benchmarking Alliance and Oxfam.
Last year, it was announced the Taskforce on Inequality-related Financial Disclosures (TIFD) and Taskforce on Social-related Financial Disclosures (TSFD) were joining forces to design a disclosure framework similar to those established for climate and nature-related risks.
