Partner
BNP Paribas Asset Management (‘BNPP AM’) has been committed to sustainability since 2002 and has continued to strengthen its ambition, its investment philosophy and its management processes to take ESG considerations into account and promote a low carbon, environmentally sustainable and inclusive economy.
The change in BNPP AM’s strapline to ‘The sustainable investor for a changing world’ marks a turning point for the company and better embodies its core values. It is part of a newly-launched international branding campaign that includes testimonials from its employees who embed sustainable finance in their daily work, for the benefit of all clients.
While ESG criteria have now become the norm for the industry, validating BNPP AM’s 100% sustainable strategy, awareness of the fragility of our planet, the desire to take action to combat global warming, protect the environment and respond to social issues are constantly growing – in the investment community and beyond. These concerns, which are shared by clients, employees, and society as a whole, are at the heart of BNPP AM’s investment strategy.
In March 2019, BNPP AM launched its Global Sustainability Strategy, a milestone in the development and acceleration of its commitment to deliver long term, sustainable returns on investment to its clients. Over the past two years, significant progress has been made, including:
- The integration of ESG criteria into the entire open-ended fund range and investment processes and the extension of ESG analysis to cover more than 12,000 listed companies.
- The strengthening of sector policies, particularly in relation to thermal coal miners and coal-fired power generators.
- Enhanced proxy voting guidelines setting expectations for board diversity, where we expect to see women make up 30% of board directors in developed markets and 15% in emerging markets.
- European leadership in sustainable thematic funds with more than EUR 90 billion invested in sustainable, impact or SRI-labelled funds. BNPP AM is also recognized in France for its range of social impact funds with an outstanding amount of EUR 2.8 billion in social and solidarity economy funds.
- The categorisation of 84% of funds as Article 8 or 9 within the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’) according to whether they promote environmental or social characteristics or have a sustainable investment objective.
These developments, at all levels of the company, have anchored sustainable investing at the heart of BNPP AM’s business model and culture.
Frédéric Janbon, CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management, comments: “Our new strapline is an expression of our reinforced commitment to generating sustainable long term investment returns for our clients and helping finance those companies most suited to building the world of tomorrow. Sustainability is not just part of our processes, it is part of who we are. We have already made significant progress but there is always more to do and we have a clear roadmap for the years ahead. Within this, we aim to increase the accessibility of our product offering to investors through clearer information and reporting, particularly in terms of impact.”
