Article 9

A recent update of a Luxembourg sustainable finance report notes that two-thirds of the assets under management of Luxembourg UCITS – 2.8 trillion euros at the end of June 2023 – report under one of the two designations set out by European rules for green investing. However, mention of investment-related greenwashing is conspicuous by its relative absence in the report.

As many as 70% of the ETFs touted as the most sustainable in their class by the fund companies that offered them have been downgraded in one year. Rather than aiming for sustainable investment, passive funds were found to incorporate only one ESG factor.

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation marks its second anniversary next month. Although it was quickly adopted as a sustainability label, its actual purpose was to provide a framework for communicating the extent to which sustainability plays a role within an investment fund. Adjusted rules that took effect in January 2023 caused a stir in the sustainable fund landscape.

While the upgrade of SFDR funds is still in full swing, light green funds did not escape this year’s market violence. Article 6 and Article 8 funds saw a hefty outflow of assets. The greenest funds did manage to attract new assets.

Article 8 funds saw net outflows of 28.7 billion euros in the third quarter of 2022. This was reported by Morningstar in a press release this week. Article 6 funds clearly lost out with an outflow of 62.1 billion euros, according to the financial services provider’s data.

The growing complexity of Europe’s sustainable finance framework and a lack of clear guidance from EU supervisors is leading to a fragmented application of the benchmark EU regulation that determines which investment funds are sustainable and which are not. As a result, the sector is facing what Morningstar’s top ESG expert calls “The Great Reclassification”.

JP Morgan Asset Management and Pictet separately announced the launch on Tuesday of new climate change solutions funds. Both funds seek to invest in companies that have aligned their products and services with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, known as the SDGs.

Product launches for Article 8 and 9 funds, sustainability funds and ESG funds are all over the place, but there is no insight into which fund houses are actually putting a lot of assets to work sustainably. Enquiries with Morningstar show that it is certainly not (only) the usual names that have the most assets in sustainable funds.

The introduction of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation should enable investors to better assess investment funds on their sustainability merits. The framework divides the fund landscape into three groups, with so-called Article 9 funds designated as the most sustainable, or dark green funds. 

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is stepping up its use of artificial intelligence in order to identify companies that provide solutions in the fight against climate change and loss of biodiversity. The US asset manager wants to use AI to find between 50 and 100 companies in which investors can invest through its climate solutions fund.

European mutual funds that promote green investments saw assets increase by some 22 percent in the fourth quarter, to more than 4,000 billion euro, and will overtake traditional ‘grey’ assets in terms of asset volume no later than the summer of 2022, Morningstar said in a research report on the effects of the SFDR sustainability regulation introduced last year.