Please see the below piece from Invesco received late yesterday afternoon:
Key Points
- As demonstrated by environmental protests against asset managers accused of “funding destruction”, the investment industry remains broadly perceived as uninterested in the existential challenges facing humanity.
- Contrary to such perceptions, asset managers have taken a lead in promoting sustainable policies and practices – especially through active ownership of and engagement with the companies in which they invest.
- It is vital that this “quiet revolution”, as the University of Cambridge has described it, builds wider recognition and that stakeholders of all kinds appreciate that their interests may be aligned with those of asset managers.
More than a decade on from the global financial crisis, the investment industry is still popularly perceived as a self-serving entity with little or no regard for the greater good. Before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed mass gatherings, environmental activists’ demonstrations – including several against financial services companies said to have “funded destruction” – provided a clear reminder of how negatively this sphere is viewed by many of those outside it.
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, now a UN Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate, even suggested that Extinction Rebellion protesters should specifically target asset management firms. This tactic, she said, would lessen the likelihood of the group alienating members of the public.
Such a sentiment underscores the degree to which asset managers, routinely cast as essential cogs in the machinery of “big business”, are deemed complicit in many of the world’s ills. Yet it also implies that they can bring about positive change; and what appears to be consistently overlooked, at least in the mainstream narrative, is that this is exactly what they are doing.
The first decade of the 21st century exposed the limits of capitalism as we long knew it. There is no disputing this, just as there is no disputing that the resulting backlash against sections of the investment industry was deserved. Yet capitalism always has been and still is a work in progress: it has evolved substantively in seeking to avoid the errors of the past, and asset managers have been at the heart of the unfolding shift.
This is because responsibility, sustainability and long-term thinking are becoming norms for the sector. Asset managers are spearheading what the University of Cambridge has described as a “quiet revolution”, and the reality – unlikely though it might seem to some critics – is that many investment professionals have a deep and even long-held commitment to the future of the planet and its inhabitants.
A passion for the environment is not some sort of obligatory extension of work for such individuals. Quite the opposite: work is a potent augmentation of their passion for the environment. This should be acknowledged far beyond the industry – not because asset managers yearn to be loved or are tired of being harangued by climate campaigners but because stakeholders of every kind need to comprehend that there is a massively important alignment of interests here.
Contrary to widespread assumptions, asset managers are not fiercely determined to thwart efforts to make the world a better place. In fact, many want to be central to such endeavours. In this paper, drawing both on our own experiences and on insights from leading researchers, we seek to show that the quiet revolution is well under way; we attempt to highlight a more “human” side to the people behind it; and we try to explain why it merits much broader recognition.
Along with the investment industry in general, asset managers have attracted considerable criticism in recent years. With past sins still largely informing mainstream opinion, the scorn of the broader public – from environmental protesters to media commentators to the proverbial man and woman in the street – seemingly remains as strong as ever. Overturning such firmly entrenched disdain and distrust will not be straightforward. The investment industry as a whole has often made headlines for the wrong reasons, and the popular realisation that it has a much more admirable side will unquestionably take time to emerge.
The quiet revolution has been under way for several years. Maybe now is the time to make more noise about it – not for the sake of asset managers’ self-esteem, not because we demand due recognition, but because how we and our efforts are regarded and understood is likely to determine our effectiveness in helping plot a truly responsible course for the future.
This article is another indicator of the direction of travel within the industry. ‘Ethical’ and ‘Socially Responsible’ investment themes have always been there in the background, but over the past two years and especially since the onset of the pandemic, it no longer seems to be in the background.
Almost every fund manager now has to take into account ESG factors within their investments and portfolios whether they are doing so because they believe its right or because they now see that they have to in order to keep up, either way, its still a good push in the right direction.
People are waking up to making the world a better place, be it via social issues or climate issues.
Investors now seem to take comfort in the fact that they can help and ‘do their bit’ to help make the world a better place.
Andrew Lloyd DipPFS
17/06/2021