Microfinance impact investments: how far are they from OECD social impact investment definition? Mario La Torre Full professor in Banking and Finance, Sapienza University of Rome e-mail:
[email protected]
Helen Chiappini Ph.D. Candidate in Management, Banking, Commodity Sciences, Curricula Banking and Finance, Sapienza University of Rome e-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract Social Impact investing - defined as investments that generate both social value and financial return - is a relevant topic on the International agenda. The literature in this field is not adequately developed and only recently have some international organizations tried to clearly define the boundaries and perimeters of social impact investments (SIIs). Existing data, based on institutional investor surveys, show impact investing as a growing market and demonstrate that one of the major developed branches is microfinance. The aim of this study is to investigate if microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), listed on the market and identified as ‘impact investment oriented’ through the registration in the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) or by the publication of an impact report, are compliant with the new definition of social impact investment suggested by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2015). The methodology applied is content analysis and MIVs have been selected using the Reuters search tool. Findings demonstrate that there is still much to do in order to ‘mind the gap’ between practical fund management and the OECD definition.
Keywords: social impact investment; socially responsible investment; microfinance impact investment; microfinance investment vehicle; microfinance fund.
