Finance for the Greater Good

In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, one of the most recognizable lobbyist groups of the business community, issued the "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation."Signatures, 181 in total and mostly from CEOs of Corporate America, backed the one-page declaration that concludes with the following: "Each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country"(Business Roundtable 2019). In his annual letter to shareholders in 2020, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, reflects on the "fraying"of the "American dream"and on how banks and firms can work together to address an emerging economic scenario in which people and entire communities are being left behind. He argues that "successful businesses can literally and figuratively "drive by"our worst problems (think inner cities) and still thrive"(Dimon 2020). There is a strong argument to be made that firms and banks have a unique role to play in solving many of society's challenges through skills training, community development, and infrastructure investments, among others. © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved.