U.S. Impact Investing Alliance Publishes New Report on ‘Private Capital, Public Good’ With Bipartisan Call to Action

The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance today published a new report, titled: “Private Capital, Public Good: Leveraging Impact Investing to Support a Just and Equitable Recovery.” The comprehensive report includes 12 specific policy recommendations and ideas with the potential to catalyze more impact investments to help address urgent social, economic and environmental challenges. These policy recommendations will be shared with the incoming Biden-Harris Administration, federal regulators and members of Congress to help build and shape an agenda for the next two years of policymaking.

Fran Seegull, President of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance: “Investors of all sizes are asking important questions about the social, economic and environmental impact of their investment decisions. The federal government has a unique role to play, ensuring that investors have access to that information and that they have a clear mandate to act on it, thereby ultimately incentivizing more investors to make the kinds of investments that we need to ensure a just and equitable recovery.”

The 12 recommendations are grouped under two main narrative themes.

1. Transforming Community Investing to Confront Inequality

In the report, the Alliance describes the “need to counteract decades of deliberate underinvestment in Black, tribal, rural and other marginalized communities. The Alliance and its partners believe “we have the policy tools to invest in thriving, inclusive and sustainable communities, but we must act urgently to fortify and scale these tools to address ongoing challenges.” Specific recommendations include:

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository institutions (MDIs) should be fortified and scaled while also seeking to develop new models to close gaps that have left Black, Brown, rural and tribal communities underserved.
Regulators should reassert the purpose of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) – to counter decades of explicitly racist banking practices – and modernize it to address the financial system as it exists today.
Congress should renew and reform community investing tax policies, ensuring that they are transparent and accountable, and that incentives are aligned with community outcomes.

2. Accelerating Stakeholder Capitalism to Advance American Economic Leadership

In the report, the Alliance makes the case that “global capital markets are now demanding sustainability, transparency and accountability from corporate actions and financial institutions.” In order to meet this demand and maintain America’s position of economic leadership, the Alliance argues that “we must accelerate the transition to stakeholder capitalism and commit to a new vision of markets that values the impact of investment and business decisions on all stakeholders.” Specific recommendations include:

Regulators should ensure that corporations have clear, consistent disclosure requirements on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to enable investors and other stakeholders to account for and manage impact.
Regulators should provide clarity to investors – including retirement plans and charitable endowments – around their duties as fiduciaries and their ability to consider the long-term materiality of impact factors.
Congress and the Administration should leverage the tools and lessons of development finance to reinvest in American infrastructure and industry to foster an economy that provides security and quality jobs for all.

Download the full ‘Private Capital, Public Good’ report.

Read today’s announcement about the publication of the report.

Download the original ‘Private Capital, Public Good’ report published in 2014 by the U.S. National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, the precursor organization to the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance.