Financing sustainable growth: The role of the European Fund Industry

Shownotes

podcasts@zeb.de https://zeb-consulting.com/de-DE/podcasts https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-andr%C3%A9-bechet-6374907/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jan-m%C3%BCller-dethard-08a89a1b7/ https://zeb-consulting.com/en-DE/publications/european-sustainable-investment-funds-study-2022 https://www.alfi.lu/

One key goal of the EU Commission Action Plan for financing sustainable growth is to "reorient capital flows towards sustainable investment, in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth”. As such, the fund industry has a key role to play in transforming our economy. This goes along with many questions: Where do we stand at the moment? How does the fund industry consider ESG and sustainable finance regulation? Is it another burden or an opportunity? And what about the challenges the industry is facing? Listen to Jan Müller-Dethard, Senior Consultant at zeb, and his deep-dive talk with Marc-André Bechet, Deputy Director General at the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry.

Markers 01:20 European Sustainable Funds Study: From niche to mainstream. Where are we on this journey?

06:00 The study aims to provide a snapshot on how sustainability objectives and the respective legislative interventions are shaping the fund industry in Europe. What´s your opinion and outlook on this subject? What surprised you most?

13:32 There is or might be a certain “downside” to sustainable investing named greenwashing. This means that funds are pretending to invest in sustainable projects but are not. Those funds that are engaging in greenwashing do they do so on purpose or because they don’t know better?

19:04 Marc-André – you know the fund industry and its different stakeholders very well. How does the market (asset manager, fund industry) consider ESG? Honestly? As a burden? A challenge? An opportunity?

27:41 What do you think about a global initiative for sustainable finance regulation?

33:27 Let’s change the perspective and take a closer look at the investors. Two questions here: First, is sustainable investing as easy as it is often claimed by the fund industry? Second, what can be done to reach more people to invest in sustainable funds? Do we need more education, more transparency, a better understanding between the actions and the real impact of sustainable investing?

41:28 So I would like to ask you a last question. Imagine you will conduct the study again in 5 years. What do you expect the results to look like? How will the European, but also the global, fund industry develop over the next five years?