Continued Growth For Green, Social And Ethical Retail Funds In Europe

The 17th edition of the study “Green, Social and Ethical Funds in Europe” has been published, the yearly report produced by Vigeo Eiris Italy in partnership with Morningstar for the period June 2015 to June 2016.

– In 2016, the European SRI retail fund market has continued to grow (+16%): assets under management reached now almost ?158 bn (?135 bn in 2015) representing 2% of the overall retail funds market.

– Number of funds slightly decreased (-5%) and reach the figure of 1138 funds (1204 in 2015).

– France and the Netherlands showed a growth ( +22% and +38% respectively), while UK experienced a decline (-6%) and Belgium remained flat.

This year, we observe in Europe:

– The four largest markets (France, UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands) confirmed their leadership accounting for 68% of European assets.

– France was confirmed as the largest European SRI retail market (37% of the total) whilst UK remained in second place (12%), followed by The Netherlands (10%).

– Equity funds (46% of the total) still outweigh fixed income funds (30%) and balanced funds (24%). However their share has not yet reached again the 2007 record of 67%.

Vigeo Eiris is pleased to observe the growth and diversification of Responsible Investment.

Fouad Benseddik, Director of Methodology and Institutional Relations at Vigeo Eiris declared:

“Vigeo Eiris is pleased to observe the growth and diversification of Responsible Investment. We are proud to contribute to this progress through our expanded universe of companies under review, our innovative methods and the precision of our analyses.”