World Bank’s finance arm battles “impact washing” with new standards

To battle so-called “impact washing”, more than 60 asset managers and institutional investors have teamed up with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, to bring greater transparency and comparability to impact investing. The IFC, an arm of the World Bank, has developed a new framework that lays out nine principles that, among other things, require asset managers to document the expected and actual impact of impact investment projects. Critics have warned that the lack of uniform standards has led to investing abuses that threaten to undermine the growth of an investment sector that could reach $26 trillion in investments in coming years.