The concept of the UNEP Finance Initiative was launched in 1991 when a small group of commercial banks, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, Natwest, Royal Bank of Canada, and Westpac, joined forces with UNEP to catalyse the banking industry’s awareness of the environmental agenda. In May 1992, in the run up to the Rio Summit that year, the UNEP Statement by Banks on the Environment and Sustainable Development was launched in New York, and the Banking Initiative was formed.

In 1995, UNEP joined forces with a group of leading insurance and reinsurance companies, including General Accident, Gerling Global Re, National Provident, Storebrand, Sumitomo Marine, & Fire, Swiss Re, as well as pension funds, to launch the UNEP Statement of Environmental Commitment by the Insurance Industry. In 1997, the Insurance Industry Initiative (III) was formed to fund research activities, and to sponsor awareness meetings and workshops and the annual regular meetings of the Initiative.

This same year, the UNEP Statement by Banks on the Environment and Sustainable Development was redrafted to become the UNEP Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment & Sustainable Development, in order to broaden its appeal to the wider financial services sector At this stage, the Banking Initiative was renamed the Financial Institutions Initiative (FII).

From 1999, both the Financial Institutions Initiative (FII) and Insurance Industry Initiative (III) started to work more closely together on issues of mutual interest, and at the 2003 Annual General Meeting in Geneva, the UNEP Financial Institutions Initiative (FII) and the UNEP Insurance Industry Initiative (III) agreed to merge, forming one Initiative to be known as the UNEP Finance Initiative.

In 2010, so as to duly reflect the common governance grounding of the Initiative, the UNEP Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment & Sustainable Development and the UNEP Statement of Environmental Commitment by the Insurance Industry were merged into a single Statement, the UNEP Statement of Commitment by Financial Institutions on Sustainable Development, finalized in 2011.