Benchmarking has become circular August 31, 2021 | City Talk Time and again throughout my career I have ranted about the nonsense of benchmarking in all its forms. By now I have given up on the hope that business and investing will ever leave the practice behind, so I don’t expect this post to change anything except to make me feel better. I spoke recently [...]
BDO: A third of companies risk losing business if they ignore the rise of ESG August 31, 2021 As environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures climb higher on both the consumer and investor agenda, companies will begin to lose business if they fail to get on board, new data has found. Almost a third of mid-market companies have admitted they face a “high” or “very high” risk of losing out on business if [...]
DWS rejects greenwashing allegations after probes launched in US and Germany August 27, 2021 German asset manager DWS has rebuffed claims that it misled clients by overstating its sustainable investing activities, after the news of probes by US and German regulators into the allegations sent shares plummeting. Shares in the €859bn group plunged by as much as 14.2 per cent yesterday, after reports emerged that the German regulator BaFin [...]
Impact investing is increasingly a buzzword in the City as millennial investors take over August 24, 2021 Impact investing, the strategy to make financial profits but create a long-standing, positive impact on our world, in the process, is becoming increasingly ‘a thing’ in the City and other financial hubs around the world. Many investors are hyper-aware of what is happening around them, with factors such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) making a [...]
ESG: full speed ahead, sat-nav still required August 24, 2021 | City Talk Sustainable investing based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors has become central to how we invest. Investors are demanding more from their asset managers: they want to invest based on their values and they are demanding more accountability from companies about addressing changing societal issues. Indeed, the Index Industry Association (IIA)’s most current latest [...]
ESG investing now mainstream, but who’s holding ‘greenwashed’ portfolios to account? August 24, 2021 Environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns are rising up the agenda of investors, who are increasingly more attentive to the impact of their investments. Beyond financial performance, investors are looking at their portfolios in relation to ESG factors, but how can they assess the ESG credentials of companies and funds when the data is scattered [...]
Investors in EU sustainable funds may end up with oil, mining or tobacco stocks August 20, 2021 If you want to invest in a fund branded as sustainable under new European Union rules, you’re spoilt for choice. But you may end up owning shares in oil companies, mining conglomerates or tobacco firms. Watch the full report.
Investors turn to overlooked data sources to assess firms’ ESG credentials August 8, 2021 A lack of publicly available information on companies’ ESG credentials is prompting investors to turn to overlooked sources to acquire data, new research shared exclusively with City A.M. reveals. Read more: Regulation and investors’ demands push fund managers towards ESG Figures from MBH Corporation shows 89 per cent of UK based professional investors think employee [...]
Mitigating litigation risk: The impact of corporate social performance factors August 3, 2021 | City Talk Much has been written on the merits of ESG investing strategies and their ability to deliver comparable, if not superior, performance to traditional benchmarks. A majority of institutional investors are motivated to employ ESG investing strategies because they believe ESG will improve risk adjusted returns1, yet the circumstances in which ESG leads to better outcomes [...]
City Corporation urges firms to support its socio-economic diversity task force July 28, 2021 The City of London Corporation is calling on financial and professional services firms to encourage their networks and employees to support its socio-economic diversity task force. At a virtual meeting, City Corporation policy chair Catherine McGuinness asked individuals and organisations to get involved by being informed and using their influence to raise awareness of the [...]