RISE Finance Lab
RISE together: Harnessing finance for positive change.
The UNSW RISE Finance Lab harnesses finance as a force for social and environmental good. Its mission: integrate responsibility, impact, sustainability, and ethics into every financial decision — redefining how capital serves people and the planet.
Founded in 2025 by Associate Professors Kristle Romero Cortés and Kingsley Fong, RISE connects rigorous research with policy and industry to strengthen financial systems that are fair, transparent, and sustainable. The Lab’s work directly advances UNSW’s Progress for All pillars of sustainability, prosperity, and societal resilience.
Over 200 people from industry, government, academia, and the student community joined a family-friendly evening of discussion and creative activities. Interactive features included a challenge wall, storyboard, and a supervised children’s activity station.
Quantifying how environmental shocks affect financial stability and financing decisions.
Empowering people to make informed choices about saving, borrowing, and investing.
Promoting responsible lending and data-driven policies for inclusive housing.
Reducing harm from financial decisions, including exploitative fees and gambling.
Advancing the integrity and impact of responsible investment, sustainable corporate behaviour, green markets, and regulation.
RISE operates within the UNSW Business School in partnership with the Business Insights Institute. Founding support comes from Altius/Australian Ethical Investments. Collaborations span ASFI, IGCC, superannuation funds, and regulators advancing sustainable-finance standards.
RISE translates research into tangible outcomes:
The RISE Finance Lab is jointly led by Associate Professors Kristle Romero Cortés and Kingsley Fong, who bring complementary expertise across climate risk, sustainable finance, banking, and investment. Together, they co-develop the lab’s strategic vision, guide its research agenda, and supervise its scholars.
Following its September launch, RISE will host back-to-back half-day symposiums on Green Bond Engagement in Sydney and Melbourne in December 2025. These events will bring together regulators, investors, and academics to showcase the RISE Green Bond Metrics Report and advance taxonomy-aligned disclosure and credible impact measurement in Australia’s sustainable finance market.
FAQ
Responsible finance means acting with accountability and care for long-term consequences — ensuring that financial decisions serve people and communities, not just short-term profit.
Impactful finance creates measurable, meaningful change. It supports investments that improve social or environmental outcomes while maintaining sound financial performance.
Sustainable finance ensures that today’s investments don’t compromise tomorrow’s needs. It promotes economic systems that are viable over the long term, particularly in environmental and social contexts.
Ethical finance is guided by moral principles and fairness. It seeks to align financial activity with integrity — avoiding harm, promoting inclusion, and upholding transparency.
RISE adds humanity back into finance. With automation taking over technical functions, the lab focuses on purpose-driven, evidence-based decision-making that connects rigorous financial analysis with societal good.
RISE Finance Lab explores how finance can serve society through research on climate risk, financial literacy, housing, responsible behaviour, and sustainable investing.
Finance shapes the world we live in. Responsible, impactful, sustainable, and ethical finance ensures that it does so with care, equity, and integrity — creating prosperity that truly serves society.
Tell us how your work aligns with responsible, impactful, sustainable, or ethical finance.
