Page 25 - Economy_Sustainable Global Economy

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4.3 Principles of ethical finances

At this date, there is no common and recognise methodology or recognised and standardised ethical code
for finances, however, some concepts and expressions have been developed around this topic, that can
help to shape some of the principles that can support ethics in finances:

- General ethical norms based on conventional morality, that encompass truthfulness, honesty, integrity,
respect for others, fairness, and justice, among others.
- Required knowledge and compliance with the financial laws, rules and regulation should be the baseline
for this activity. Also, financial professional should continuously update their skills to be aware of the
current legal framework for this activity
- Principle of independence and objectivity, avoiding conflict of interests
- Reasonable care and diligence: financial professional shall perform their professional activities with
reasonable care, prudence and diligence.
- Responsible investment, incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into
investment and ownership decision
- Green finance: when finance is focused on delivering positive environmental results that are measurable

4.4 Examples of financial ethics in question

Case Study on Green Bonds

Seven Pillar Institute is an independent, nonprofit, non-partisan, think tank for research, education, and
promotion of financial ethics. This financial ethics organization provides research and resources on ethics
in finance, as well a a series of study cases of finance ethics.

On their webpage, they propose for instance an analyse on Green Bonds from an ethical perspective.
While Bonds are tradeable fixed-income debt instruments that provide issuers with access to funding from
international and domestic markets, Green Bonds are issued for the sole purpose of funding projects that
help with climate change mitigation, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. However, this
financial instrument might present some controverse.