Westpac adds new SRI
The latest ethical investment product hit the retail and wholesale markets yesterday, with the introduction of the Westpac Australian Sustainability Share Fund.
The newest inWestpac’s suite of socially responsible investment (SRI) products follows a best of sector approach with a strategy focused on sustainability, assessing the social, financial and environmental aspects of about 162 listed Australian companies.
Westpac Corporate Monitor executive director Michael Walsh says demand for SRI funds has been investor driven, making it a faster growing sector than managed investments overall.
“This is a ground swell, a movement. There are shoes to fill and it is unique to be able to supply clients with something they want.”
The best of sector approach for the fund’s portfolio construction means Australian listed companies from 23 different industry sectors are covered, according to head of Monash University’s School of Geography and Environmental Science Chris Cocklin.
Cocklin is also head of Monash Sustainability Enterprises, the research team that developed the eco ranking process and delivers company ratings to Westpac.
“No company is excluded on the basis of what it does, because there is no positive or negative screen,” he says.
Westpac Financial Services managing director Shaun Mays believes sustainability, and investments that will survive over the longer term, are what is needed “at a time when business needs to be more hard hitting.”
With information available in Australia still at an elementary stage, Cocklin believes environmental sustainability evaluations should show their worth over time.
“There is no track record so we have to see how it goes, but there is empirical evidence that this approach will work,” he says.
The Westpac Australian Sustainability Share Fund has a minimum retail investment of $1000.
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