One of Europe’s biggest asset managers has thrown its support behind the UN’s new responsible banking framework to accelerate the industry’s climate change goals.
Swiss-based Pictet Group, which manages around €490bn of assets, has signed up to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Banking which strive to align company business strategies with society’s goals.
Following the success of its Principles for Responsible Investing, launched back in 2006, the UN created the Principles for Responsible Banking in September this year to push banks and other financial firms to be more transparent about how their products and services create value for investors, customers and society.
Launched by 130 banks representing more than $47 trillion in assets, the principles are designed to step up the banking industry’s contribution to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.
“Sustainability is central to Pictet’s way of thinking,” Renaud de Planta, senior partner at Pictet, said. “As a partnership, we are financially independent and concentrate on the long-term interests of our clients, our staff, the communities we work and live in and, ultimately of the company itself.
“This goes hand in hand with embracing sustainability in our day-to-day investment decisions and the products and solutions we propose to our clients. It is in this spirit that we have taken the decision to pledge to the Principles for Responsible Banking,” de Planta added.
The Principles place a number of stipulations on companies including reducing the negative impacts of their activities on people and the environment, and setting targets where the firm can have the most significant impact.
Pictet has been known to be vocal about climate change and ESG issues.
Earlier this year, the company, along with Swiss Sustainable Finance over 140 other asset managers, urged FTSE Russell, Morningstar, MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Indices and STOXX to remove controversial weapons from mainstream indices.
