BNP Paribas AM Shares Key Findings of ESG Criteria Study Amid Covid-19

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted a need for greater awareness of social considerations in investment decision-making. In order to improve understanding of investors’ approach to social considerations, BNPP AM revealed it sponsored a recent ESG study conducted by Greenwich Associates.

The study showed that 81% of respondents already take ESG considerations into account in all or part of their portfolios, with a further 16% planning to do so. The leading reasons were to positively impact society or the environment (80%), reduce risk (58%) and meet stakeholder needs (47%).

The importance of ESG factors

BNPP AM’s market study showed the extent of changing perceptions of the importance of social considerations, with a substantial increase expected.

Overall, almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said that ESG has become ‘more of a focus/more important’ as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. French respondents led the way, with 42% thinking that ESG has become more important; whereas the proportion in Germany was notably low at just 3%.

The importance of all three ESG factors has increased since the crisis began, most notably for social considerations, which 70% of respondents expect to become extremely or very important. The importance of social criteria rose 20 percentage points from before the crisis, closing the gap on Environmental (up 11% to 74%) and Governance (up 4% to 76%) factors.

Environmental and governance factors remain the most important ESG elements of investment approaches, although the increasing focus on social issues shows a major paradigm shift, with significant variation by region.

“The Covid-19 crisis has clearly prompted a shift in investor perception of social factors, which are now widely seen as having a critical and positive impact on long-term value creation and risk mitigation. It has also highlighted the interconnection between the way in which companies approach social issues such as treatment of employees or addressing inequalities in their long-term sustainability strategy. At BNPP AM, we engage with the companies in which we invest with regard to social issues and all aspects of ESG. We encourage companies to evolve and improve their social behaviour, thereby reducing risk and enhancing the sustainable returns that we can deliver to our clients.“ Frédéric Janbon, CEO of BNPP AM, stated.

Social considerations’ impact on investment performance and Risk Management Risk Management One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, Read this Term

The study also showed a strong view that social considerations have a positive impact: 79% of respondents expect social issues to have a positive long-term impact on both investment performance and risk management. The short-term impact on investment performance appears less significant.

Intermediaries’ perceptions of the positive impact of social considerations is even greater than that of investors: 88% of respondents believe the ‘S’ criteria will have a greater impact on long-term performance versus 76% pre-crisis, and similarly 94% of respondents believe it will lead to better risk management compared to 74% per-crisis.

Respondents’ perspectives of social considerations are subject to multiple influences, primarily global events (38%), news & media (33%) and regulators and internal stakeholders (both 32%). They are less influenced by consultants, who rank low on the list.

Further analysis showed the relative importance of underlying social issues to investment processes. The most important elements were labour standards (38%), excluding harmful investments (31%), human capital management (23%) and gender equality (22%), with community involvement (11%) considered less important.

Barriers to investing

Although 37% of respondents saw ‘no barriers’ to investing with consideration to social factors, two clear barriers emerged from the study: “lack of established/standard metrics” (42%) and “lack of clarity over what socially responsible investment includes” (31%).

This is consistent with another key finding - that a majority of respondents plan to significantly increase the use of social metrics. Almost half the respondents (47%) already use exclusionary metrics, with a further 26% planning to do so, while 33% already use labour standards metrics, with the same percentage expecting to incorporate them.

According to the survey findings, a wide range of market players plan to enhance their focus on social considerations in their ESG approach, a trend which reflects one of the three themes of BNPP AM's Global Sustainability Strategy, that of equality and inclusive growth.