Leading research, consultancy and software company Prometeia has released a study of the asset management industry, highlighting that less than half of assets under management have sustainability integrated into day-to-day operations.

Prometeia, a specialist in risk, wealth and asset management, has over 45 years developed a wide-ranging portfolio of software, consultancy and data services, supporting hundreds of financial institutions throughout EMEA.

Mostly known in Switzerland for its tools and data for advisory, Prometeia’s research insights, which include analyses, forecasts and other business reports, are popular among banks, insurance firms and other financial institutions and are widely used for everyday strategic decision-making.

Wide-Ranging Impacts

One of its recent studies focuses on sustainability within the investment community. Asset managers in particular are looking to integrate ESG within their day-to-day business, which will undoubtedly have wide-ranging impacts across the entirety of their operations and is becoming ingrained in their DNA.

However, Prometeia’s study of the EU and U.S. asset management industry found that so far only 44 percent of Assets Under Management have successfully integrated sustainability.

Download the full study here

A total of 27 asset management companies were surveyed, ranging from large to small, with a combined 17.9 trillion euros of assets under management, with the findings suggesting an inverse relationship between manager size and the proportion of sustainable assets in total assets under management (AuM).

Sustainable Investment Practice

As a part of this research, Prometeia developed its own methodology to assess the soundness of processes, team and company culture from the ESG perspective: the ESG-AM score, a summary index to facilitate the measurement and inclusion of qualitative aspects in selection and monitoring processes.

According to Prometeia’s analysis, only about half of the firms are properly structured to offer investors a good sustainable investment practice, with some variability by size and headquarters domicile.

Asset Managers Are Pivotal Players

In terms of domicile, Germany ranked the highest in almost every category, Switzerland came in the middle of the pack while the U.S. ranked last, with the lowest ESG-AM scores across the different categories. In terms of size, smaller Asset Managers reported higher overall ESG-AM scores than larger ones. 

Asset managers, as providers of investment solutions, are pivotal players in the entire sustainability and ESG context and many of them have been working on these topics for years, tuning their expertise and progressively extending the reach of sustainable strategies to a greater part of their assets under management.

Make The Most Of It

Prometeia’s research and methodologies identify and quantify the impact of the sustainable (r)evolution on investment firms, and its tools and services help asset managers and distributors make the most of this ever-evolving framework.