The second edition of the Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF 2017) will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, this September.

The event is organised by Middle East Global Advisors, in partnership with the Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC).

The forum will be held under the patronage of the Scottish government, and will be hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), building upon the legacy of the inaugural forum held in September 2015.

The theme for GEFF 2017 – “Ethical Finance: Merging Profit & Purpose”, is in line with the forum’s aspiration to serve as a platform of convergence and collaboration across the responsible finance universe, and to forge a vision for a more inclusive and sustainable financial system.

The global financial crisis also considered as the apex of “unsustainable capitalism”, and the subsequent bail-out of too-big-to-fail organisations sent ripples of shock and instability throughout the world. Following the crisis, there was a call greater than ever to focus on a sustainable approach that took long-term profits into account versus the obsession with short-term profits and numbers that culminated in the crisis in the first place. 

Presently, the financial sector is exhibiting signs of a return to precisely the same risky behaviour that led to the crisis, a finding that was echoed in the latest IMF Global Finance Stability Report.

In the light of the numerous disruptive threats the financial world is facing, GEFF 2017 will spearhead an exclusive panel session focusing on the massive potential sustainable capitalism harbours. 

The session aims to assess the social and environmental implications of rehauling the current economic model, the key challenges to mainstreaming sustainable capitalism, and most importantly the key measures that would place the economy on a sustainable path.

The session will also delve deeper into the strong link between sustainable capitalism and responsible finance, and aim to assess how the latter can tackle growing inequality and social strife.

Across two days, GEFF 2017 will spearhead a series of sessions focusing on the massive opportunity that lies in mainstreaming ethical finance, one that requires concerted efforts to build meaningful dialogue across its three segments: environmental, social and governance (ESG), socially responsible investing (SRI) and Islamic/faith-based finance. 

The forum aims to drive thought leadership across a wide range of topics including green bonds, financial inclusion, ethical banking, amongst others, with the vision of bringing ethics to the forefront of business.

The forum will take place on September 13 and 14 at the RBS’s conference centre in Edinburgh.