Five stock exchanges to promote corporate responsibility

Nasdaq is among five stock exchanges that have committed to promoting CSR principles among the nearly 5,000 companies collectively listed on their markets. 

 

The US technology exchange has been joined by Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa and stock markets in Johannesburg, Istanbul and Egypt in calling for improved ESG disclosure and performance. 

 

The announcement follows three years of negotiations as part of the UN-led Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative, which seeks to encourage more responsible long-term approaches to investment. 

 

The UN hopes to enlist more stock exchanges to the same commitments over the coming months.

 

James Gifford, executive director of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) programmes, said that since 2011 a group of PRI signatories, led by Aviva Investors, has been engaging with the 30 largest stock exchanges on CSR-related issues.

 

He added: “The commitment of stock exchanges to sustainability is an important element of the PRI’s mission to mainstream integration of ESG into financial markets.” 

 

This was echoed by Aviva Investors chief responsibility officer Steve Waygood, who said: “As a major institutional investor, we’ve been a big supporter of the initiative since the outset. We strongly welcome these public commitments by stock exchanges. 

 

“For some years, we have made it clear that Aviva Investors would prefer to trade on exchanges that embed better ESG disclosure in their listing rules.”