Obstacles to sustainable finance and the covid19 crisis

ABSTRACT

Rarely are the incentives of portfolio managers aligned with those of companies’ stakeholders. In this article, I use access to the founder of Wright Capital, a wealth management company that has U$600 million under management, to explore the dynamics of sustainable finance and impact investment amidst the covid19 crisis. Pointedly, Wright Capital is a consumer of financial products related to the sustainability domain. As such, it encounters many of the supply-side obstacles that have been observed by researchers; chiefly among it, few specialized funds, the prevalence of green washing, and difficulties in disentangling ESG scores from other companies’ characteristics (larger companies tend to provide more detailed information on their environmental and social initiatives).

KEYWORDS:

• ESG
• asset allocation
• sustainable finance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).