During the last year, the two bestselling funds of the commercial network of BNP in France had ESG criteria (Environmental, Social and Governance). These funds were BNP Paribas Developpement Humain and BNP Paribas Aqua, with assets for over 1,000 million euros each.

BNP Paribas Developpement Humain is European variable income fund with social theme that invests on companies linked to health, hygiene, food, education. BNP Paribas Aqua is a monothematic global variable income fund that invests on companies linked to water: treatment, infrastructure, utilities.

Funds that included socially responsible investment criteria manage assets for over 6.6 billion dollars (around 6 billion euros) in the United States, 18% of the entire industry, while in Europe investments are around 116,000 million euros.

“Though it is a rather low amount, profit, social awareness and progressive changes will make the number go up”, said Ramón Esteruelas, Senior Investment Specialist – SRI & Thematic Equities at BNP Paribas.

Ramón Esteruelas stated that “the inclusion of non-financial criteria is gaining more relevance in investment analysis”.

His team of extra-financial analysts has experts in issues linked to health, corporative government, energy, technology and social impact, among others. Furthermore, they use over 200 criteria to score companies, considering the environmental, social, and corporative governance impact. For instance, they assess from the information in the label in the case of food companies, to the independence of administration councils, CO2 emissions, the use of renewable energies or the relationship with suppliers.

In his opinion, “in the long term, every company that meets ESG criteria will be more profitable”, and, besides, “socially responsible investment provides meaning to investments without losing profit, quite the opposite.”

Finally, Ramón Esteruelas referred to the importance of regulating in the promotion of this sort of investments and expressed his conviction on the fact that, one of the reasons for which in France it has way more weight than in Spain is due to the tax support they receive.

Source: ComunicaRSE