The next step on our responsible investing journey

Regular readers of MarketWatch may recall that when I wrote about Responsible Investing in our Outlook publication this year, I was critical of the Responsible Investing community’s overuse of confusing acronyms. I am very conscious of this as I introduce another. However, given this acronym marks a significant milestone in our clients’ sustainable investment journey, I hope you will forgive me.

In June 2023, Davy became a signatory to the United Nations sponsored Principles for Responsible Investing, or the PRI for short. The PRI works to understand the investment implications of environmental, social, and governance factors and supports its network of signatories to incorporate these factors into their investment and ownership decisions.

David Atkin, CEO at the Principles for Responsible Investment, comments: “We are pleased to welcome Davy as a PRI signatory. Investors which sign up to our Principles are proactively demonstrating their commitment to the highest standards of responsible investment management, encompassing the key role that environmental, social and governance factors play in delivering positive outcomes for investment beneficiaries. We look forward to working alongside Davy as part of our global stable of signatories in the future, in furtherance of important work to deliver the benefits of responsible investment to the sector.”

About the PRI

Since its launch in 2006, the PRI has grown from under 100 signatories to over 5,000 signatories in 2023. The PRI is a global initiative with members including asset managers, both in public and private markets, wealth managers, pension funds, and service providers from over 80 countries across the globe. This collective group is responsible for over $120 trillion in investment assets. It is unique in terms of its reach and the depth of resources it provides to signatories.

Its mission is based on the belief that an economically efficient, sustainable global financial system is a necessity for long-term value creation, and that such a system will reward long-term, responsible investment and benefit the environment and society as a whole.

I believe this well describes the essence of responsible investing. The PRI, along with its signatories, understand their fiduciary responsibility to achieve the financial aspirations of investors and savers they represent, and to do so in a way that supports efforts to build a more sustainable and equitable society.

What are the Principles?

There are six Principles for Responsible Investment to which Davy, along with other signatories, commit.

How does commitment turn into action?

In practice, our signatory status has led and will lead to various initiatives across our investment activities at Davy. There will be more debate and discussion at the investment committee around sustainability factors. Our offering includes Socially Responsible Investment options, and we will look to provide more detail and insights to our clients on responsible investing to help promote the cause. We are excited to get involved more with the PRI and its various initiatives in the years to come.

The world of responsible investing is evolving and growing, as indicated by the growth in signatories over the past two decades, but this can also be evidenced by the assets flowing into sustainable investment products. In Europe, funds classified as having sustainability considerations under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation reached over €5 trillion as at the end of June, as reported by Morningstar. They now make up over 55% of the Morningstar database for funds available in Europe, moving from the minority to the majority in the past year. Progress in other regions like the US is lagging, not least due to the political aspect of the debate around sustainable investing, but interest has grown in recent years.

Sustainability at Davy

Our membership of the PRI as investors, on behalf of our Wealth Management clients, comes at a time when our sustainability ambitions as a firm have also picked up pace. In July this year, we launched our new sustainability website which details what we are doing as a corporate to support our clients’ sustainability efforts as well as our own. As part of our commitment, we believe that Davy can play a substantial role in our transition to a green economy, sitting as it does at the heart of wealth and capital in Ireland. We are investing to deliver on this potential, in line with the expectations of our stakeholders, which includes you, our client.