The revolution in ‘financial citizenship’ is coming
Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall believes New Zealand is on the cusp of a ‘financial citizenship’ revolution. Rob Stock reports.
Sir Stephen Tindall wants to talk about ‘‘financial citizenship’’. This is capitalism with a new face. Investors here look for society to get a dividend too.
His Tindall Foundation, set up following the sale of The Warehouse in 1994, was an expression of Tindall’s own belief in financial citizenship.
‘‘Once we had [listed] The Warehouse, we had all these dividends coming in.
‘‘I wanted to do something good with it. I didn’t want to invest it in any old thing any industrialist might do.’’
At the time, the Tindall Foundation was a ‘‘lone wolf’’, Tindall says, but that’s changed, and he believes New Zealand is on the cusp of a financial citizenship revolution.
Tindall is championing the new Financing the Future report, which maps how ‘‘impact investing’’ could go mainstream and help tackle social and environmental problems where governments have made little headway.
Impact investing primer
‘‘Financial citizenship means investing in things that you believe will make a difference to the country, not just to your financial return,’’ Tindall says. Impact investing has three elements. First, the investment must have an intention to have a social impact.
Second, the investment must have a financial return for the investor.
Third, the social impact must be accounted for, and reported on.
This last is critical. Tindall, and the Tindall Foundation aren’t in the business of accepting assurances from the founder of a social enterprise that they are doing good.
‘‘You can’t just stick a wet finger in the air,’’ Tindall says. ‘‘You have got to be very robust about it now.’’