'Fairtrade for finance' should be a badge of honour - not a rubber stamp

Kitemark for responsible investment should improve industry standards

High-tech gadgets, just-in-time supply chains and globalised markets have made life more convenient for most of us - but they have also made it more complicated.

Do you know how the metals in your smartphone were mined, or how employees are treated on the coffee plantations that grow your Arabica beans? Is your pension invested in companies that damage the environment? Some industries have solved the problem of 'information asymmetry' by introducing commonly agreed standards, providing consumers with reassurance that minimum guidelines have been observed - for coffee-drinkers, the Fairtrade label means they can sip their morning latte with confidence it has been ethically sourced. For too long, finance has lacked a set of publicly available st...