Our Story

A Decade of Impact:

Pioneering the Fusion of Islamic Values & Responsible Finance

Over the past 9 years, RFI has been at the forefront of building awareness, promoting research, and encouraging convergence between responsible and Islamic finance. We have seen tremendous growth and progress, but there is still more work to be done.

Vision

A responsible financial ecosystem that drives sustainability, inclusion and equity for all stakeholders.

Purpose

Enabling financial players to deliver sustainable values through research, training and implementation programs

There is a responsible finance transformation underway within finance in OIC markets

This transformation in the OIC financial sector initiated by industry leaders, regulators and other stakeholders, and supported by key organizations including the RFI Foundation requires a change in mindset that plays to the strength of Islamic finance as an ethically oriented form of finance that can deliver economic, environmental and social impacts.

Our Approach

KNOWLEDGE

We provide thought leadership through open access data, reports and public comments on responsible finance consultations that affect OIC market and Islamic finance.

ATTITUDE

We are internal advocates working with financial institutions as they make and meet their environmental, social, governance, climate- and nature-related commitments.

BEHAVIOR

We seek to identify and inspire through example where OIC market & Islamic finance stakeholders are able to meet their ESG, climate- & nature-related commitments.

Our Impact

  • Published 13 reports relevant to responsible finance in OIC markets and Islamic finance

  • Published 12 public comments on sustainability-related consultations

  • Convened 4 global conferences in 3 countries (Malaysia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates) and numerous in-person and virtual roundtables with responsible finance stakeholders

  • Launched RFI Insights in 2023 as an open-access database of financed emissions for 206 banks in 11 OIC countries across 5 years (2017-2021)

  • Catalyzed 60 FinTechs through our GVI Hub FinTech Programs since 2021

  • Steering committee member of BC100+ (Blockchain for Sustainable Development Goals and UN Charter Values launched under the patronage of H.E. Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th UN General Assembly in 2022)

  • Co-Chaired Working Groups on Sustainability for Global Digital Finance in 2022 and the Global Blockchain Business Council in 2023

  • Currently working under an MOU with AAIOFI to provide support on development of a Governance Standard on Responsible Finance

  • Became a Non-Party Stakeholder (NGO Observer) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2023 and sent a delegation to COP 28 in Dubai

Our History

2015: RFI was the first nonprofit working to connect Islamic & responsible finance

Founded in 2015, the RFI Foundation was the first nonprofit organization principally dedicated to connecting the responsible finance and Islamic finance markets together. 

Before RFI's founding, the connection between responsible & Islamic finance was almost purely academic. Our primary early successes have been related to promoting the  linkage together of sustainable, responsible & impact finance and Islamic finance as stakeholders in “responsible finance”.

We were formed around a belief that there is a natural fit for Islamic finance within the broader conception of responsible finance. In addition to this core alignment, we believe there can be exchange of knowledge and best practices from each side to create a stronger and more vibrant responsible finance ecosystem.

The RFI Foundation’s activities were initially focused on building awareness, promoting research and encouraging convergence between responsible & Islamic finance, and that work continues.

Beginning in 2018, we anticipated that a major change was starting where the level of awareness around responsible finance, especially within Islamic finance, was reaching critical mass and we made a pivot from awareness to implementation. 

The change has been progressively integrated into our activities and the services we provide and guided an increasing number of our engagements with financial sector stakeholders interested to join us towards a common purpose beyond commitment and towards action.

2018: From awareness to implementation

Today & Beyond:
RFI as an Internal Advocate to Shape Attitudes, & Drive Change

The transformation from awareness to implementation has become a core part of RFI’s activities, and as others step up on awareness-building, RFI sees itself as an "internal advocate" - someone who understands responsible finance intrinsically and seeks to enable change to develop from within the financial sector. We are leveraging our decade of experience and connections to keep momentum behind better integrating principles of sustainability, inclusion and equity.

We will lead by example, demonstrating how diversity in responsible finance, including by advancing finance that is oriented around ethics, can benefit entire markets. RFI stays committed to this inside-out transformation towards realizing the full potential for responsible finance. When we take on the role as an internal advocate, RFI delivers knowledge and builds capacity to shift attitudes, beyond general awareness of sustainability, ESG and responsible finance for financial institutions in OIC markets.

A Community Interest Company (CIC) is a special type of company in the United Kingdom, where we are registered, intended to benefit communities rather than private shareholders. Unlike a charity, a CIC can engage in trading activities to fund its work, while still maintaining a primary social purpose over profit maximization.

As a nonprofit CIC, we enshrined our mission for responsible finance in our legal DNA. This allows us to have the flexibility and sustainability to engage with financial sector stakeholders in a different ways that we could if we were a charity, while retaining a higher purpose that guides all of our work.

The CIC structure allows RFI Foundation to create a financially sustainable organization that is distinctively focused on driving change in the financial sector in OIC countries and within Islamic finance.

What is a C.I.C. & how does it make us different?

Our Partners

Steering Committee Member of:

Endorser of:

The RFI Foundation is among the non-governmental organizations (NGO) that have been admitted by the Conference of the Parties as observers to the UNFCCC