In its latest report on responsible investment, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) presents the European asset management industrys role and involvement in responsible investment and puts forward key recommendations for the future. The report is an update of EFAMAs previous 2014 report on the same topic.

The growing demand from investors to address environmental, social and governance ESG matters in the investment decision-making process has created a global momentum around sustainable and responsible investments. European asset managers, as intermediaries between investors and companies, have a crucial role to play in driving this trend.

Responsible investment has long been a focus for EFAMA. This years report sets out EFAMAs outlook and recommendations on the main questions surrounding responsible investment: the importance of reliable and accurate reporting by companies, the debate about investment performance and responsible investment, the role of legislation and the different selection methods in the responsible investment process.

Peter De Proft, Director General of EFAMA, commented: In the context of the increased focus on sustainable finance at EU level, we believe it is particularly timely to discuss the European asset management industrys ever-growing role and involvement in responsible investment.

There is no doubt that demand for sustainable and responsible investment is growing. This is in part due to the recognition that economic sustainability will impact longer term value creation, however the changing social and ethical values of asset owners and the broader public have also strongly influenced this transition.

He concluded: The European asset management industry is determined to continue to play its part in this global effort to solve some of the most pressing issues of our generation. We hope that this report will provide guidance for this collective initiative.

The full report can be accessed here.

Notes to Editor:

Previous EFAMA reports on responsible investment were published in 2011 and 2014

The second part of the 2016 report on responsible investment details country-by-country descriptions of the legal framework and various private sector initiatives in relation to responsible investment in different Member States.

Ends

Peter De Proft,

Director General

Telephone: +32 (0) 2 513 39 69

E-mail: info@efama.org

EFAMA is the representative association for the European investment management industry. EFAMA represents through its 28 member associations and 62 corporate members EUR 21 trillion in assets under management of which EUR 12.6 trillion managed by 56,000 investment funds at end 2015. Just over 30,000 of these funds were UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) funds, with the remaining 25,900 funds composed of AIFs (Alternative Investment Funds). For more information about EFAMA, please visit www.efama.org