This chapter’s first issue or challenge is introducing the social finance
concept, whose scope is not well-defined. Various definitions exist without a consensus about what social finance
is. Weber (
2012, p. 3) states that social finance
is “the umbrella term for financial products and services that strive to achieve a positive social, environmental or sustainability
impact.” Undoubtedly, the umbrella term has the advantage of being all-encompassing and all-inclusive. However, it also has the weakness of combining heterogeneous and different products, processes, and decision-making models. Thus, it erases the differences, key characteristics, and uniqueness. For Dadush (
2015, p 32), “social finance
is replete with hybridity” because social and commercial requirements drive it. This hybridity generates a regulatory challenge to mitigate the risk
of mission drift for those double-bottom-line business models. …