A large European bank is to triple the money it manages along socially
responsible lines.The asset management division of Amsterdam-based ABN
Amro plans to increase assets under SRI management from €1.5billion
($1.8bn, £1bn) to €4.5bn within the next three years, and wants to
increase the amount further.
It will open ‘several new sustainable funds’ over the next two years in
Germany, the UK and France, which is Europe’s fastest-growing SRI
market. This will mean branching out from its main areas of SRI
activity in Brazil, The Netherlands and Sweden, where the bank also
plans to establish new sustainable funds. Tonika Hirdman, global head
of sustainable investment, told EP: ‘We will learn from our experience
in Europe to eventually bring [SRI] to other markets depending on the
market situation.’
SRI assets will still account for only a small proportion of the bank’s
overall €167bn under management. The expansion will bring them to just
below three per cent of the total compared with the less than one per
cent at present.
One consequence will be an increase in ABN Amro’s SRI research budget,
although the bank will not give details. ABN Amro recently appointed
Gemma Taylor-Gee, formerly of the SRI rating agency CoreRatings, to its
London SRI team. Last year it brought together a sustainable
development team to oversee group-wide CSR strategy and to help its
investment arms incorporate sustainability factors into their research.
The bank, which has 98,000 staff in more than 60 countries and made
€3.24bn net profits in 2004, says it wants to be part of the expected
‘strong growth in the sustainable investment market’ among retail and
institutional investors during the next few years. A Mercer Oliver
Wyman study commissioned by the bank forecast that SRI assets under
management in Europe will almost double from €93bn in 2004 to €173bn by
2008.
The bank will extend the engagement approach that it uses for existing
SRI investments, calling meetings with companies in which it invests
‘to influence their business philosophy and their activities’. It has
used engagement widely in Brazil, the Netherlands and Sweden. Banco
Fonder, its Swedish subsidiary, has talked to about 100 companies since
2000.
