Wall Street Investment Firms Promote Socially Responsible Investing

by Vikas Vij
May 18, 2015 5:00 PM ET
Campaign: CSR Blogs

Impact investing represents a growing segment where the investors back businesses that combine both financial and social returns. The number of investment funds that incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors has gone up from just 55 in 1995 to 925 in 2014, registering a growth of 1,600 percent. The total value of assets invested in such funds has also increased from $12 billion in 1995 to $4.3 trillion in 2014.

Some of the leading Wall Street investment firms are promoting the benefits that sustainable impact investing has in their investment platforms. Morgan Stanley says that they will expand the investing with Impact Platform through new products and innovative thematic portfolios to meet increasing client demand for new opportunities. The firm has set a five-year target of $10 billion in total client assets through impact investments.

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​Image Credit: Flickr via Erasmus T

Vikas is a staff writer for the Sustainable Development news and editorial section on Justmeans. He is an MBA with 20 years of managerial and entrepreneurial experience and global travel. He is the author of "The Power of Money" (Scholars, 2003), a book that presents a revolutionary monetary economic theory on poverty alleviation in the developing world. Vikas is also the official writer for an international social project for developing nations "Decisions for Life" run in collaboration between the ILO, the University of Amsterdam and the Indian Institute of Management.