25 November 2019
The Investment Association (IA) has announced new guidelines around responsible investment that aim to ensure environmental, social and governance products are being appropriately and consistently labelled. The UK fund industry trade body has said that the lack of defined framework for what constitutes a sustainable investment strategy leaves investors “confused or unable to find the investment opportunities to match their diverse responsible investment goals”. The IA’s new framework is due to be implemented next year and focuses on what defines an asset manager as being a responsible investor. This contrasts to the EU taxonomy, currently being negotiated by member states, which is intended to focus only on whether specific activities by companies that make up fund holdings can be defined as sustainable.