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Social & Sustainable Finance Chair

Social & Sustainable Finance Chair

FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Created in October 2020, the Social & Sustainable Finance Chair of Montpellier Business School is the extension of the Microfinance in Developed Countries Chair, created in 2018 in partnership with the Microfinance Institution Créa-Sol. The chairholders Dr. Anastasia Cozarenco and Dr. Thi Hong Van Hoang, have the objective to promote social finance, in particular microfinance and social banking, and sustainable finance, which aims to direct the flow of financial capital toward projects focused on the achievement of the 17 sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations in 2015. With this objective, the activities of the chair are structured around three axes: teaching, research, and events.

Teaching

The objective of the chair is to train students and professionals in social and sustainable finance in order to become actors of environmental and social transition. With the existing specialization Master of Science Responsible Finance and courses in microfinance, ESG and SRI, in various teaching programs at Montpellier Business School, the chair will continue to develop new training programs via face-to-face and online sessions.

From the 2021-2022 academic year, the Social & Sustainable Finance Chair collaborates with the Master Program to coordinate and lead a new specialization in Sustainable Finance. This “Sustainable Finance” certificate will be open to students in the 3rd year of the Master Program and will allow students to prepare themselves, in an operational manner, for different professions in Sustainable Finance.
 

Research

The objective of the chair is to produce and disseminate knowledge in social and sustainable finance with academic and professional articles, regulatory reviews, and white papers. Drawing on its experience and its academic and professional networks, the chair contributes and participates in debates around social and sustainable finance, and around regulatory and big data issues.
 

Events

The chair organizes thematic conferences and seminars to create places for collaborations and debates between academics, professionals, and regulators in social and sustainable finance. The chairholders also participate in various academic and professional events to bring their vision to these debates.

AREAS OF INTERVENTION

The Chair works in different areas to promote social and sustainable finance, through teaching, research, events, and partnerships with companies. To this end, our research focuses on the following topics

  • Measuring the impacts of social finance;
  • Analysis of the environmental, social and financial performance of companies, their tensions and synergies;
  • Statistical modelling applied to extra-financial ESG (environmental, social and governance)
  • The development of social and environmental scores;
  • The study of business models of microfinance institutions in Europe;

The Chair also offers :

  • The organisation of academic and corporate seminars on the themes of social and sustainable finance;
  • The development of training modules, both face-to-face and online.

SPECIFICITIES OF THE CHAIR

The specificity of the Social & Sustainable Finance Chair lies in its proximity to its stakeholders. People are at the heart of our activities.

We are involved with our partner companies in various areas such as professional training, thematic seminars, conferences, regulatory/sectoral monitoring, interventions in our courses and the creation of pedagogical case studies. Our collaboration with partner companies also includes the recruitment of our students and graduates for internships, work-study contracts and positions of responsibility. We would like to thanks all our partners for their trust and commitment.

With the students and graduates of Montpellier Business School, the Chair created in March 2021 the “MBS Community in Social & Sustainable Finance” whose objective is to create a meeting place to develop and support student and graduate initiatives in social and sustainable finance. Within this community, we organise webinars, afterworks, as well as working and research groups.

Together with the professors of the Chair, we have created a friendly meeting space to present our academic research, and to collaborate in joint research projects and training modules. Seminars are organised to present and develop research and teaching projects.

People are at the heart of our activities and this is what makes us special.

MISSIONS AND VALUES

The first mission of the Chair is to promote social and sustainable finance through teaching, research, and events, with private and academic partners on two main themes

  • Microfinance and social banking
  • ESG and sustainable investments

Through teaching, the Chair’s ambition is to be an actor in the environmental, social and economic transition by training students and professionals in the challenges of social and sustainable finance. Through research, the Chair produces and disseminates knowledge, findings, avenues of reflection and new models so that finance aligns with the objectives of sustainable development by creating positive impacts and limiting negative impacts. Through events, the Chair creates a place for meetings and debates in order to advance social and sustainable finance in companies and with regulatory bodies. These events also help to raise public awareness of the environmental and social challenges of finance.

To carry out these missions, the Chair collaborates with private and academic partners to develop teaching and research projects that combine academic rigour with the needs of finance professionals in the field.

Thanks to our sponsors

TESTIMONIAL

The partnership (2018-2021) of the Caisse d’Epargne Languedoc-Roussillon with Montpellier Business School in the framework of the Social and Sustainable Finance Chair has contributed to co-constructing solutions for financial inclusion. Supporting the MBS Social and Sustainable Finance Chair means supporting very strong human values: ethics, diversity, equal opportunities. CELR has thus contributed to the environmental and economic transition, particularly in terms of training students in the challenges of social and sustainable finance. Nearly 600 students have had access to the teaching of the MBS Chair over the past 4 years.

Gilles Suppa
Head of the Cooperative Life and CSR Department, Caisse d’Epargne LR

Contact

Dr Anastasia Cozarenco, titulaire de la chaire

Dr Anastasia Cozarenco, Chair holder

Dr Thi Hong Van Hoang, titulaire de la chaire

Dr Thi Hong Van Hoang, Chair holder

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