Certificates with sustainability credentials from Vontobel
Investors can now buy Vontobel certificates whose underlyings have been subjected to a sustainability analysis. Vontobel is the first and currently the only certificate provider in Switzerland and Germany to evaluate and report its certificate product offering according to ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria.
Since Vontobel was founded, sustainability in various forms has been an important part of the Swiss bank's corporate culture.
Customer demand for sustainable products that take into account environmental and social factors as well as corporate governance is rising steadily. The topic will continue to gain in importance. Supranational efforts such as the EU's action plan for financing sustainable growth are currently being implemented. These are intended to commit the financial sector to sustainable investments.
Vontobel anticipates this development and subjects its own product range in the area of certificates to a review according to ESG criteria. In the case of certificates on equities, Vontobel first examines each underlying for standard exclusion criteria (e.g. no companies invested in nuclear energy or weapons).
In a second step, industries and companies are evaluated according to sustainability criteria and a final selection is made. The lower the industry rating, the higher the company rating must be for it to be classified as sustainable. In the case of a product with several underlyings, all must qualify as sustainable in order to receive the ESG label.
Certificates whose underlyings meet the ESG criteria are now identified by the ESG logo and can be easily displayed using a new filter criterion in the product search. This means that interested investors can find such products even more quickly in the Vontobel investment universe.
Vontobel only considers investment products to be sustainable if the investor participates in rising prices of the underlying, as only then is the sustainable development associated with the underlying supported. Leveraged products and products in which the investor bets on falling prices of the underlying are therefore not assessed as sustainable.
"The classification of our certificates according to ESG criteria is a response to steadily increasing client demand. By labeling them with the ESG logo, we are not only promoting alternative asset classes, but also once again underlining our pioneering spirit in the area of certificates," says Roger Studer, Head of Vontobel Investment Banking.
Sustainable investment certificates from Vontobel in Switzerland
https://vonto.be/CH_Nachhaltige_Anlageprodukte
