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Impact disclosure guidance released by Taskforce

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Group chaired by JPMorgan ( JPM ), Natixis

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Aims to help countries, companies raise impact finance

By Karin Strohecker and Simon Jessop

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - A new guide for countries

and companies seeking financing for activities that have a

positive and verifiable social or environmental impact could

unlock an extra $200 billion a year for sustainable development,

a JPMorgan ( JPM ) executive told Reuters.

The voluntary guidance issued on Wednesday by the

finance-sector-led Impact Disclosure Taskforce seeks to address

an estimated $4.2-trillion-a-year financing gap for the United

Nations' sustainable development goals.

Some ESG forms of financing, such as green or

sustainability-linked bonds or loans, have had market-driven

classifications for some time. However, there is no common

rulebook for assessing lending aimed at creating a positive

social or environmental impact.

Many issuers have struggled to attract investors because of

a lack of quality data, targets and reporting on impacts.

The new guidance has a five-step process, including

assessing the issuer's strategy to ensure that its products,

services and operations target a country's most acute needs.

Issuers must also describe the impact they hope to achieve

and how they expect to get there, establish targets to measure

the impact and report on them.

"It creates a market and an industry consensus of how

development impact should be measured and disclosed," said

Arsalan Mahtafar, head of the development finance institution

team at JPMorgan ( JPM ), the largest U.S. bank.

Based on the bank's footprint and its development

finance target, the projects expected to be made available to

impact investors would be worth over $200 billion a year,

Mahtafar added.

Timothee Jaulin, head of ESG development at asset manager

Amundi, a member of Taskforce, said the guidance would make it

easier for investors to assess countries' sustainability

criteria.

Co-chaired by JPMorgan ( JPM ) and French lender Natixis,

Taskforce's more than 50 members also include the Asian

Development Bank, HSBC, Korea Eximbank, Morningstar

Sustainalytics, Linklaters and Standard Chartered.

The guidance's release coincides with a meeting of the World

Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington to discuss

how to free up more finance to help countries meet challenges

including climate change.

It also precedes global climate talks in Azerbaijan in

November where developing countries are pushing for a more

ambitious annual climate-finance target.

(Editing by Rod Nickel)