LGT launches new sustainability rating

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LGT

LGT has introduced a new sustainability rating. The rating, which comprises five different levels, assesses equities, bonds, funds and ETFs according to key environmental, social and governance criteria. It provides all of LGT’s private clients with valuable information about the sustainability of their investments, as well as an additional tool for making investment decisions.

Sustainability is an important and integral part of LGT’s corporate strategy and culture. As a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, the company committed to adhering to these principles in 2008. LGT introduced a clause for responsible investing for many of its investment programs in 2003. This systematically excludes investments that bear significant environmental, social and governance (ESG criteria) risks. In 2009, LGT introduced its sustainable equity and bond funds.

With the new LGT Sustainability Rating for equities, bonds, funds and ETFs, LGT has now gone a step further and provides clients with comprehensive information about the sustainability of their investments. LGT’s sustainability analysts assess the individual financial instruments using a proprietary rating instrument, which they have been successfully implementing in the management of their sustainable funds for around eight years. The tool assesses the financial instruments’ underlying companies and countries according to around 20 key environmental, social and corporate governance criteria. The assessment of these various factors results in an ESG score for each stock or bond; for funds and ETFs, the score is calculated for the overall portfolio in question. Raw sustainability-related data from specialized data providers are incorporated into the assessment process. The individual financial instruments receive a sustainability rating ranging from one star (poor) to five stars (excellent) based on their ESG score.

Andrea Ferch, Head Fund Research, LGT Bank (Switzerland): “With the new LGT Sustainability Rating, our clients receive easy to understand information about the sustainability characteristics of investments, and therefore have a valuable additional tool when making their investment decisions. The rating can be used to assess individual securities, but also overall portfolios, and investors can use this tool to align their portfolios in a sustainable manner. LGT is thus contributing to the sustainable allocation of capital.”

LGT offers its clients a broad spectrum of sustainable investment opportunities ranging from sustainable investing and impact investing through to purely philanthropic commitments. With the LGT Sustainability Rating, the private bank is rounding out its sustainable products and services offering with the addition of a further dimension.

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