AXA IM calls for responsible investment standards
With responsible investing shaping as a big growth market, global investment manager AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is leading the way in the sector with its focus on transparency.
AXA IM has commissioned independent expert Deloitte to audit its six RI funds, with all of the funds found to be fully compliant with the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment.
AXA IM Australia and New Zealand director Craig Hurt said the lack of a globally recognised set of RI standards meant that global investors were not being offered full transparency.
"Through our work with Deloitte and the expansion of our global RI initiatives, we aim to offer Australian institutional investors - and their individual members and investors - a wider opportunity to invest in strategies incorporating [environmental, social and governance] principles," Hurt said.
AXA IM is also looking at adding a number of new metrics to assess RI issues. In addition to the widely used carbon footprint metric, the firm will develop corporate governance, social and water metrics.
The company recently appointed Matt Christensen to the role of global head of responsible investment (RI). Christensen is a dominant figure in the RI field, having held the position of founding executive director of the top European RI think tank Eurosif.
Christensen said that Australia's $1.3 trillion superannuation sector would be a key driver of the Asian RI market, but he added that corporate governance, regulation and transparency were key factors in Asia.
"Global investors should abandon the box-ticking approach based on the application of a single set of corporate governance rules, and instead encourage Asian companies to embrace the spirit of good principles of corporate governance as their companies and economies evolve," Christensen said.
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