– Trend or minimum requirement?

The topic of sustainability has been highly topical at the latest since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. The deterioration of the ecological framework conditions was identified as an additional risk for the global economy and the financial industry was explicitly made responsible.

Since then, the EU institutions have been working intensively on the topic of “sustainable finance” and have launched several initiatives in parallel, through which the financing of sustainable projects or companies is to be increased. This has given the financial industry an unasked-for role in European climate policy. At the same time, the sensitivity of society and institutional investors to sustainability issues is increasing, so that customer interest is also changing.

Spotlighted in our World Café: Sustainability in Asset Management

The share of sustainable investment products is still in the single-digit percentage range, but this could change significantly due to the current popularity of the topic. Investors are now increasingly looking for “sustainable” investment products, while companies have started to finance their projects with instruments such as “green bonds”. Asset managers are increasingly embracing the trend and launching corresponding products. However, in order to set up this process optimally, there is a lack of definitions for a uniform understanding of sustainability as well as regulatory framework conditions.

Together, we discussed the following topics in particular with various market participants:

  • What are the requirements for sustainable products from the perspective of sales and institutional customers?
  • How should the product portfolio of asset managers/insurance companies be strategically structured?
  • How deeply does the demand for sustainability affect the organization of investment, settlement and sales processes?

How the above developments are assessed and implemented on the part of financial service providers in the various parts of the value chain was the subject of our World Café. The documentation of the event is now available and should give you an impression of the contents and contributions to the discussion.

Read more in our Broschüre zum World Café (*only available in German).

For further information please do not hesitate to contact us: https://www.consileon.de/branchen/banking/