A Sydney-based brokerage is the first specialist finance brokerage to have been given a B Corporation certification.
The B Corp certification is designated to businesses that meet certain standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability, to balance profit and purpose.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
B Corps also agree to have their business performance measured across five pillars, including governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
There are currently over 3,000 B Corp-certified companies in 64 countries across 150 industries. As of August 2019, there were 250 Australian companies that were issued with a B Corp certification.
Surry Hills-based brokerage Pure Finance has become the first finance brokerage to be awarded the certification.
Commenting on the certification awarded to Pure Finance, director Brendan Dixon said the brokerage submitted itself to the scrutiny of the B Corp certification process.
“It’s a lengthy process and so it should be,” Mr Dixon said.
“In an industry known for hiding details in the fine print, we’re proud to say we’ve got nothing to hide. In fact, we want you to look under the hood.”
Mr Dixon established Pure Finance in 2011 with the aim of balancing profits with ethics and equality, which he said is currently pertinent given the revelations in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services.
“The industry has been responsible for a lot of damage and predatory behaviour. It’s little wonder trust levels are so low,” he said.
“Thankfully, we baked ethics and equality into the fabric of our business from day one, and are incredibly proud to become Australia’s first B Corp brokers.”
The brokerage said it will soon be launching a no-interest loan program to support vulnerable Australians who might be falling through the cracks of welfare initiatives such as the JobKeeper package.
Earlier this year, non-bank lender Liberty Financial was also awarded a B Corp certification.
[Related: Liberty accredited as B Corporation]