The importance of this Standard

The financial services Sectors Standards will be developed under the Sector Program. The project will see the development of three Sectors Standards for banking, insurance, and capital markets.

Financial services organizations are intermediaries between all other economic actors, allocating capital through investments, channeling funds from savers to borrowers, facilitating payments, and allowing people and companies to transfer risk. The significance of these sectors lies in their central position in the economy, in which few activities could function without credit, insurance, capital markets or payment services.

Banks, insurers and actors in capital markets have impacts through their own operations - such as employment practices, customer privacy, financial inclusion as well as investment activities. By investing in businesses that have human rights or environmental impacts, financial sector actors facilitate impacts that reach beyond their own operations.

Project update

Work is currently being undertaken to finalize the financial services Project Proposal, which will be submitted to the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) for approval in the first quarter of 2023. Read the draft Project Proposal for more information.

This project will commence in Q2 2023.

About this project

GRI Sector Standards are designed to help identify a sector's most significant impacts and reflect stakeholder expectations for sustainability reporting. They outline organizations' likely material topics and list disclosures that are relevant for the sector to report on.

The Financial Services Sectors have been approved by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) to be included in the next sectors for which Standards will be developed, as part of priority group one. Sectors are prioritized based on the seriousness and the likelihood of their impacts, considering size, worldwide distribution, and the number of organizations from that sector that can use GRI Standards.