Thursday, October 9, 2014

Eurosif Study Reveals Double Digit Growth in SRI Strategies

Eurosif's sixth study of sustainable and responsible investment in Europe shows that SRI investment strategies have grown at double digit rates between 2011 and 2013, faster than the broader European investment market.

For example, the study reveals that assets subject to exclusion criteria, also known as negative screening, grew by 91% between 2011 and 2013, and now cover an estimated 41% of European professionally managed assets. Voluntary exclusions related to cluster munitions and anti-personnel landmines are the most common.

Assets subject to engagement and voting policies have grown by 86% over the period to reach 3.3 trillion euros, versus 1.8 trillion euros in 2011. Half of that growth comes from the U.K., with other key contributors being the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. 

Impact investing is the fastest growing strategy, the study reveals, with 132% growth since 2011. Impact investing is now a 20 billion euro market. Key markets for this strategy are the Netherlands and Switzerland, representing an estimated two-thirds of European assets, followed by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. Microfinance represents an estimated 50 % of European impact investing assets.

The study also sheds light on how the integration of non-financial factors into investment decisions is implemented. All forms of ESG integration have grown by 65% since 2011, making this one of the fastest growing strategies.

Despite the impressive growth of the SRI market, the study highlights a number of market failures such as the wide variations in adoption of SRI practices across countries and the weakness of the retail SRI market. Institutional investors continue to drive the SRI market in Europe with an even higher market share than in 2011.

Data was collected or estimated at the end of 2013 covering institutional  and retail assets from 13 distinct European markets. 





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