The Role of Platforms in Fostering Sustainable Finance: A Comprehensive Approach

Abstract

As the global financial ecosystem undergoes a paradigm shift toward sustainability, platforms emerge as instrumental intermediaries, connecting diverse stakeholders, facilitating information flow, and catalyzing impactful investments. This paper analyses the evolving landscape of sustainable finance and investigates the role of platforms in fostering its growth. Sustainable finance platform-based enablers were determined using a systematic literature review and bibliometric techniques on a sample of papers retrieved from the SCOPUS database, and included crowdfunding platforms, impact investment platforms, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, blockchain-based financing platforms, and ESG data platforms. The analysis showed that platform-based solutions act as accelerators of sustainable finance mobilization, by enhancing transparency of the processes, and by improving dissemination and accessibility of the funds needed. Thus, platform-based solutions help a broader set of stakeholders direct the potential of platforms to accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable and inclusive global financial system.