Study: 45% of Insurers, Asset Managers, and Pension Funds Lack ESG Investment Policies

According to recent research from Clearwater Analytics, just under half (45%) of asset managers, pension funds, and insurers still do not have ESG investment rules in place (CWAN). These conclusions were revealed by CWAN in a study of over 190 institutional investors' policies on ESG.

The findings were released the same week when HSBC Asset Management removed its global head of responsible investment for claiming that "climate change is not a problem we need to be concerned about."

CWAN discovered that those without a defined plan blamed a lack of available and credible data for evaluating investments on an ESG basis, with only 16.5 per cent blaming lower returns.

Market players believe private equity and debt assets are "behind the times" in terms of data, with 80% of respondents saying ESG market data for private equity investments is "inadequate or absent," and 79 per cent saying the same for private debt.

This contrasts with only half of respondents reporting it as a concern when investing in public shares, highlighting the challenge investors have when assessing the ESG impact of private market assets, according to CWAN.

Respondents also admitted to being behind the times in terms of operational management of their ESG data, with more than 40% still using spreadsheets for reporting, even though half of them are required to report on responsible investment quarterly.

Source: Asset Servicing Times

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