March 2023

Australia’s regulator sues Mercer pension fund in first greenwashing case

Australia's corporate regulator launched legal action against pension fund Mercer Superannuation on Tuesday, accusing it of misleading members about the sustainability of some of its investment options. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission's (ASIC) said this was its first court action alleging "greenwashing", or exaggerated claims of environment-friendly investment and products, which has garnered increased attention as interest rises in sustainable and ethical investment options. ASIC said last year it was stepping up oversight of climate-related reporting and was investigating several...

February 2023

US. House Democrats introduce bill to codify DOL ESG rule

As backlash ramps up against the Department of Labor's new rule permitting retirement plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when selecting investments, House Democrats introduced a bill to codify the rule into law. The Freedom to Invest in a Sustainable Future Act, like the Labor Department's Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights rule that took effect Jan. 30, stipulates that plans may consider ESG factors in their investment...

U.K. Pensions Regulator tells retirement plan trustees to disclose ESG data or face fines

The U.K. Pensions Regulator warned Wednesday that retirement fund trustees could be fined if they don't report on ESG and climate change investments. TPR said in a news release it will launch a campaign in the spring that will check if trustees are publishing ESG data in their statement of investment principles, which outline how retirement funds invest. Since 2019, retirement funds have been required to publish ESG policies on plan websites to show ESG investments to plan participants. They are...

Buenas prácticas en torno a la inversión sostenible

Por Consejo Coordinador Empresarial  La transición hacia una economía sostenible requiere aumentar el financiamiento a través de proyectos e iniciativas que brinden beneficios tanto económicos como no-económicos y que estén direccionados hacia empresas que contribuyan positivamente a la sostenibilidad. La inversión sostenible combina la inversión tradicional con conocimientos relacionados a la sostenibilidad al integrar consideraciones ASG (ambientales, sociales y de gobernanza) en la toma de decisiones de inversión. El financiamiento sostenible permite reorientar los flujos financieros hacia inversiones sostenibles, al incentivar al...

ESG: EU Regulatory Change and Its Implications

Despite the sharp change in the financial landscape over the past year and an increasingly challenging macroeconomic climate, investment focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors is set to grow. Global ESG assets may reach $50 trillion by 2025, one-third of the projected total assets under management globally, from $35 trillion in 2020. [1] Climate-related challenges, in particular, have come to the fore given the experience of unprecedented heat waves in parts of Europe, forest fires in the...

Denmark’s AkademikerPension takes on the banks financing fossil fuels

Denmark’s AkademikerPension, the member-owned pension fund for 150,000 academics, has just notched up another important milestone in its ambitious sustainability strategy. Pressure from the fund’s CIO and chief financial officer Anders Schelde on Denmark’s Dankse Bank contributed to the lender announcing plans to end new financing to oil and gas E&P companies that don’t have a credible transition plan in line with the Paris Agreement. Last year, Schelde stood up and challenged Dankse executives at the bank’s AGM, the only...

US. Attention to ESG grew in 2022 along with headwinds

It is tricky to say which was a more volatile issue in 2022 for public pension funds operating under ESG principles — the politics or the markets. They managed to navigate both, and this year many of them are even ratcheting up their sustainable investing agendas. Some, like the $61.4 billion Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Baltimore, took a page from the largest U.S. funds that added ESG specialists for their investment divisions. Although Maryland CIO Andrew Palmer first formed...

Eight funds breached EU sustainability rules, says Danish watchdog

Denmark's financial watchdog has ordered the companies behind eight sustainability funds to take remedial action after finding they had violated European Union disclosure rules on such investments. The watchdog said failings included a lack of clear, adequate and comprehensive information on the funds' sustainable investment objectives. Financial regulators across Europe have increased scrutiny of how fund managers are meeting reporting requirements of the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which aims to prevent so-called greenwashing of environmental or sustainability credentials. "It is...

January 2023

US. Cryptocurrency Was Sold To State And Local Pensions As ESG

Senator Katie Muth, a Board Member for the $40 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) will never forget the first meeting of the pension board she attended and the ESG presentation she heard which included cryptocurrency as a solution for the un-banked in African countries. “I was really looking forward to the ESG presentation but was very confused as to how blackbox fake currency could improve the lives of people suffering from economic hardship on the continent. The...

Europe’s Biggest Pension Fund Issues ESG Warning to Banks

One of Europe’s biggest investors is putting banks on notice and may start exiting the sector unless it sees proof that claims of portfolio decarbonization are matched by action. “The financial sector has really lagged,” said Dominique Dijkhuis, a member of the executive board and head of investments at ABP, which is Europe’s largest pension fund. “If you say you’re committing to a climate course and then still actively granting loans to new fossil products, that’s just not aligned.” ABP is...