Any important new market needs its innovators, cheerleaders and pioneers… As banks try to build more responsible and sustainable businesses, these are the champions of impact banking at 10 of the world’s biggest firms. From green and blue finance to financial inclusion and social banking, they are leading the way and setting an agenda for others to follow.

From the United Nations and the European Commission to customers and shareholders, the world’s banks face increasing pressure not only to consider their broader role in society but also to take actions that have a positive impact on it. There is no doubt that most chief executives take this challenge seriously. Whether they take it far enough remains to seen.

Are we missing a trick by not tweaking tried-and-true instruments for sustainable finance? Can we talk more broadly about commercial viability? And then, of course, there’s Goldman Sachs.

Ten years on from a financial crisis often portrayed as caused by the greed of bankers, we are talking recycled carpets and alleviating poverty. It is a genuinely good thing.

Danone’s inks €2 billion ESG-tied credit facility; European firms dominate sustainable borrowing.

Big Society Capital hits £600 million; Portugal, Japan, Israel adopt model.

Private sector needed for alternative financing; outcome funders looking for greater efficiency.

In the refugee camps of Jordan and Lebanon, life for the many of the 5 million Syrians displaced by civil war somehow goes on. A whole new financial ecosystem is needed to support the amazing resilience and initiative of many of these refugees, who have little prospect of going home. It presents a new challenge for NGOs and they need the help of investors, financial institutions and the private sector. Euromoney visited camps in Jordan and urban areas in Lebanon to talk to aid workers, government and non-government officials and the refugees themselves to find out what role the banking system can play in alleviating the greatest humanitarian challenge of this century.

Blue states lead lagging US on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing; pension funds hold investment managers accountable.