Sustainability

The EU is currently developing rules for sustainable investment. Through guiding capital flows, it aims to support sustainable economic sectors and production processes. The EU's goal is a climate neutral economy by 2050. The fund industry, as an important financial intermediary, thus has a key role to play and is happy to play it. As early as 2012, the German fund association BVI introduced 'Guidelines for Responsible Investing'.

However, to help the EU meet its ambitious climate change target, asset managers need to obtain the relevant data from companies for their stock selection, preferably from all companies worldwide. What asset managers do not need are rigid guidelines that mean that investors are no longer free to decide what they want to invest in. This would prevent an intensive debate on the sustainability of the companies in which investments are to be made and would replace it with a regulatory box ticking exercise. Ultimately, this would mean that the transition to more sustainable investments would not be dynamic and lose momentum.

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