Panel Member: Dr. Dominique Biedermann, Ethos Foundation Workshop: B3

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1 Panel Member: Dr. Dominique Biedermann, Ethos Foundation Workshop: B3
Transparent Finance: The importance of Codes of Conduct for institutional investors Panel Member: Dr. Dominique Biedermann, Ethos Foundation Workshop: B3 Global Ethics Forum of Globethics.net, June 2012 “Seeds for Successful Transformation The Value of Values in Responsible Business”, Geneva/Switzerland

2 Ethos Ethos – Swiss Foundation for Sustainable Development
130 members, CHF 150 billion AoM, one million beneficiaries Promote Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Foster a stable and prosperous socio-economic environment Ethos Services SA – Fully owned by the Ethos Foundation SRI asset management, Analyses of general meetings with voting recommendations, Engagement programme with companies, SRI consulting Ethos Académie – Non for profit Association Open for private persons: Information, sensibilisation, assistance for active shareholding

3 SRI and Codes of Conduct
Investing in an SRI manner requires analysing companies not only from a financial point of view, but also incorporating environmental, social and corporate governance criteria The existence of a code of conduct is an essential instrument of risk management The institutional investors are interested in the existence of a code of conduct, its publication, coverage of issues and implementation

4 Codes of conduct (100 largest Swiss listed companies)
Thème très populaire. Les codes sont analysés depuis 2008: étude sur les codes de conduite. Analyse basée sur des critères de responsabilité sociale, environnementale et d’éthique des affaires. En 2011: 72 codes publics et analysés; parmi les 10 codes non publics, 4 ont été transmis par les entreprises et six n’ont pu être analysés: en tout, 76 codes ont été soumis à l’analyse d’Ethos. Parmi les 76 entreprises: 63 ont un contenu complet de leur code; 13 partiels. Mise en œuvre complète: même proportion. L’analyse montre que l’évolution est positive. Exemple éthique des affaires. Yes: public Yes: non-public No

5 Codes of conduct: Coverage (100 largest Swiss listed companies)
Workshop presentation

6 Codes of conduct : Implementation (100 largest Swiss listed companies)
Workshop presentation

7 Codes of Conduct: Anti-corruption mesures (19 largest Swiss listed companies)
Workshop presentation

8 Sustainable Stock Exchanges
A collective engagement initiative Goal: To encourage national stock exchanges to require from listed companies a publication of detailed information about their environmental and social strategy, as well as their corporate governance (including codes of conduct) Participants: Approx. 30 leading institutional investors (including Ethos)

9 Conclusions For an SRI investor, codes of conduct are an integral part of extra-financial information The lack of information on the existence, coverage and implementation of a code of conduct is a serious concern In light of the limits of self-regulation, there is a need to define minimum rules of transparency at least for Listed companies Public interest entities NGOs