Originally published to Financial Times | April 25, 2012
Finance has been pilloried in recent years for putting profits ahead of people. At its best, it still performs a noble role: connecting investors to investments and fuelling industrial innovation. But finance could also do far more to help tackle social problems instead of leaving the challenge to governments drowning in debt and philanthropists with limited resources.
Look at the numbers. US foundations alone have around $700bn in assets. They give away about 5 per cent of assets annually, about $35bn. This is a lot of money, but not when compared with the investment management industry, which oversees more than $100tn.