e-fundresearch.com: Compared to the whole business of BNPP IP – what significance do SRI-products currently have and what potential is expected from this product range in the future?
Anita Frühwald: Today we manage and advise € 20 Billion in SRI Assets compared to € 508 billion (end of September 2014), it represents almost 4% of our total assets.
Our objective is to increase this percentage, especially thanks to the success of our thematic range of products in European countries.
e-fundresearch.com: Who are the clients that are most attracted from SRI-products? Pensionfunds are more and more forced from regulators to ask for SRI-products. Who are the other target groups?
Anita Frühwald: Effectively Pension funds, defined contribution funds and Institutional clients are interested in Best In Class approach- But on the other hand thematic funds have really nice success in retail and private banks networks.
e-fundresearch.com: Many Investors are cautious with SRI-products as they are afraid of systematic performance disadvantages compared to traditional strategies. What is the BNPP IP’s strategy on this issue? How do the SRI-products perform compared to traditional strategies?
Anita Frühwald: Our objective is to offer at least an equal financial performance as mainstream products. Our added value is to offer also an extra financial performance (environmental and social performance). We measure it on a quarterly basis and provide this information to our clients (ex : level of CO2 emission of our portfolio compared to the level of the benchmark).
