IA launches first industry-wide consultation on sustainability & responsible investment

Friday 25 January 2019

The Investment Association (IA), the trade body that represents asset managers, has today launched the first industry-wide consultation on sustainability and responsible investment.

The consultation seeks the views of asset managers on key aspects around sustainability and responsible investment, with the aim of bringing greater clarity to help savers and investors navigate and better access this growing feature of the investment management industry.

The consultation covers the following three key areas:

• Agreed standard definitions: Proposed definitions for the different sustainable investment approaches, including commonly used terms such as: environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration, impact investing, and negative screening, with the aim of agreeing an industry-endorsed set of standard definitions.
• Development of a UK product label: A proposed voluntary UK product label designed to assist retail investors and their advisers to easily identify funds which have adopted a sustainable investment approach. The label would also draw attention to the sustainability and responsible investment expertise within the UK.
• ‘Stock-take’ of reporting frameworks: A review on reporting frameworks used by asset managers to disclose how they embed ESG considerations into their investment process, and the impact that their investments have had on wider sustainability indicators.

The consultation will close on 1st March 2019.

Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:

“Social and environmental change is happening faster than ever before. The asset management industry is at a critical juncture in embracing sustainability as a defining feature of the investment landscape.

“With sustainability and responsible investment becoming an increasing priority for today’s investors, this consultation is an important step forward in gathering the views of the industry with the ultimate aim of bringing greater clarity to savers.

“As significant investors, it is our role to help today’s investors achieve both their financial as well as their environmental and social goals.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

• At the start of 2018, the Investment Association (IA) identified sustainability and responsible investment as a dedicated policy area in its own right to assist firms in thinking about their wider role in society and on the environment and to promote all forms of responsible investment.
• The IA’s Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee was established to provide strategic direction to this new policy area and has a broad mandate to consider and lead on all issues affecting member firms in sustainability and responsible investment. Today, over 35 firms are represented on the Committee, making it one of the largest at the IA.
• Please find the IA's two-page document, 'Sustainability and Responsible Investment Explained', here.

For further information, please contact:

For media, to receive the full consultation document, please contact Helen Ayres

Helen Ayres, Communications Manager: [email protected]

T +44 (0)20 7269 4620; M +44 (0)7508 724 066

IA press office: [email protected]

About the Investment Association (IA):

• The IA champions UK asset management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £7.7 trillion of assets and the asset management industry supports 100,000 jobs across the UK.
• Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers.
• Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to: o Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
• o Help people achieve their financial aspirations
• o Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
• o Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.
• The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.
• The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages 35% of all assets managed in Europe.