Sustainable investing practices of asset managers operating in Finland

Abstract

Sustainability has become a trend in many industries and finance is no different. Sustainable investing does not have an official definition, but it often refers to the practice of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decision-making. Throughout the years it has developed from simple religious practices into a comprehensive investing phenomenon. Recently, because of the rapid growth of the industry, the fear of greenwashing has become apparent.

The past academic literature related to sustainable investing has primarily focused on financial performance and non-financial performance has been overlooked. Therefore, it is relevant to study these issues in more detail. The objective of this master’s thesis is to get a better understanding of the sustainable investing practices of asset managers operating in Finland. Specifically, the aim is to study how asset managers practice sustainable investing, how they communicate about it, and how they prevent greenwashing in their practices.

To collect data for the study, a survey with 38 questions was sent to 31 asset managers, out of which 24 answered all the mandatory questions. The data acquired from the survey was descriptive and it was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, to get a more thorough analysis of the topic. Based on the survey, all the asset managers operating in Finland practice sustainable investing. They use various strategies, have different motivations, and believe that investing sustainably can lead to excess returns in the future. Asset managers use a variety of different ways to disclose information regarding their sustainable investing practices to their stakeholders. They are, for example, committed to certain initiatives and disclose sustainability-related information on their website. They see greenwashing as a problem in the investment industry and prevent it in their practices by promoting high transparency and integrity. There exist differences in the sustainable investment practices between asset managers with different amounts of assets under management. Asset managers with larger amounts of assets under management tend to have more resources, which is why they seem to have more advanced ways to practice sustainable investing and communicate about it than asset managers with less assets under management.

This master’s thesis gives a notable addition to the current academic literature regarding sustainable investing. There do not exist many studies regarding this topic, which is why these results provide important information related to the sustainable investing practices of asset managers operating in Finland. This thesis is done as a commission by Scandinavian Financial Research Oy.