AFC gains international recognition for sustainable finance
Alliance Finance Company PLC (AFC), Sri Lanka’s third oldest finance company with a pioneering focus on triple bottom line principles—people, planet and profit—has earned international recognition for its contribution towards sustainable value creation in business practices by being accepted into the Sustainable Standards and Certificate Initiative (SSCI), which is a global initiative that is promoted by the European Organization for Sustainable Development founded through an European Union initiative (EOSD) and supported by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) and the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AIAFD/AADFI).
AFC becomes one of just three companies in the world to receive this honour and the first from the Sri Lanka Banking and Non-Banking Sector. AFC will now serve as a member of this pioneering initiative and help draft the first global standard for Sustainable Banking and Finance. Selection to the prestigious initiative was done on evaluation of AFC’s business practices that have contributed towards sustainable value creation over the last several years.
In 2017, AFC became the first financial institution in Sri Lanka’s Non Bank Finance Institutions (NBFI) sector to commit to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement on Climate Change by signing the Karlsruhe resolution on 13th July 2017.
Under the leadership of Managing Director Romani de Silva, the company has integrated sustainability into its business model successfully. This year the company launched two projects to promote biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration. Three percent of AFC’s profits go towards environmental and social sustainability.
In recognition of his unwavering commitment towards these principles and his visionary leadership in driving the company’s sustainability mandate, de Silva won the Merit award as a Sustainability Leader of the Year at the Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance Awards 2018 held in Germany on 13th July 2018.