RBI collaborates with GFIN to prevent ‘greenwashing’
Recently the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will join the Greenwashing TechSprint of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN).
RBI has opened the application window for all India-based firms and innovators to participate in GFIN’s first Greenwashing TechSprint.
Techsprint will bring together 13 international regulators including the RBI and firms and innovators on a single platform. It aims to address GFIN’s priority on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework. At the same time, it aims to reduce the risk of greenwashing in financial services.
Greenwashing is a method of propaganda. In this, a company presents its products, activities or policies as environmentally or socially positive/friendly or as avoiding environmental or social damage, whereas the reality is the opposite.
The ESG framework helps stakeholders understand how an organization is managing the risks and opportunities related to ESG norms.
India is gradually moving towards ESG regulation with the introduction of the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework by SEBI. BRSR aims to establish a relationship between a business’s financial results and its ESG performance.
BRSR has been made mandatory for top 1,000 listed companies (by market capitalisation) from 2022-23.
Global Financial Innovation Network: GFIN
- It was formally launched in 2019 by an international group of financial regulators and related organizations.
- It aims to support financial innovation in the best interest of consumers.
- Creation of a new framework for co-operation between financial services regulators on innovation-related issues, etc.
- Focus on emerging technologies at multiple sectoral levels to identify gaps in the regulatory system.
- Act as a monitoring tool to detect issues before they become more serious and cause harm.
- Conduct data centric collaborative activities.
- Gain insights from global markets and regulators on emerging technology trends and policies.
Source – The Hindu
