Signatories to the UN-sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) increased 29 percent in the past year in terms of assets under management and now include more than half of the world’s institutional assets, according to a statement by PRI.
PRI’s 1,395 signatories now have a total of $59 tn in assets under management (AUM), with the addition in the past year of Vanguard, Harvard University, the University of California, Bank of America’s Global Wealth & Investment Management and a series of others. In April last year the PRI had about 1,260 signatories with a combined $45 tn in AUM.
The significant growth in the AUM is due to a number of factors including new signatories, growth in AUM from existing signatories and updated AUM figures for new reporters, PRI says in an announcement: ‘Some very big investors signed up to the principles in the last year. Vanguard alone adds 7 percentage points to our AUM.’
Signatories to the principles, which are centered on ESG issues, now include 911 investment managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity Worldwide and others. The 290 asset owners that have signed up to the PRI include CalSTRS, CalPERS, Stichting Pensioenfonds, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Lloyds Banking Group, and more. The PRI also has 194 professional service partner signatories, including Bloomberg, As You Sow, Glass Lewis and ISS.
‘This significant increase in the AUM represented by PRI signatories demonstrates that responsible investment is making clear inroads in the capital markets,’ says Fiona Reynolds, managing director of the PRI, in the statement. ‘Investors have also begun to realize in recent months that their collective financial muscle can be used to effectively engage policy makers on issues such as climate change.’
