Objectway's Survey Report Reveals Key Factors To Lead The ESG Race

MILAN and LONDON, March 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Highlights:

• wealth & investment firms are not ESG-ready yet
• client demand is the top ESG driver
• total portfolio approach will discriminate leaders from laggards for returns and client engagement

Objectway, a leader in the Digital Wealth & Asset Management software, released the survey report "Are you ready for ESG?", revealing a glimpse of the market on ESG investments, one of the greatest areas of change that wealth firms expect.

The report is based on the results of the web-based survey that Objectway conducted in March 2021, and filled in by UK and European Wealth & Investment Management firms. The sample of opinion leaders was composed by 70% of small-medium businesses and 30% of large enterprises.

The survey report investigated the stage reached in terms of ESG integration within a risk aware investment process, and its implications on the digital experience.

Firms seem to be not properly ESG ready yet, with only 39% of respondents who has already implemented a specific ESG policy, while 22% lacking a policy and 39% in progress of developing it.
Early adopters that are integrating ESG in their strategy will then have a competitive advantage, reflected both in terms of client engagement and of higher efficiency and returns.

Investors see ESG as a real differentiator between firms. Many would consider leaving their wealth manager, based on the quality of their ESG offering and how it is delivered. Coherently, 45% of respondents affirmed that ESG are primarily adopted to satisfy clients' requests.

When asked if the investment process was supported by a fully integrated platform, just 7% answered positively, while 87% declared they do not have a vertically integrated risk management solution.

"Survery's results highlight how investors demand was the main driver for wealth managers to implement sustainable investing. Fulfilment of these preferences is therefore a golden opportunity to engage with them," commented Alberto Cuccu, Objectway CEO International, on the survey results. "Such a process requires an end-to-end ESG & RISK aware investment system. We provide a solution where the ex-ante analysis of risk and sustainability are validated by ex-post monitoring, resulting in stronger returns and higher investments' quality, relied on processes that take into account risk tolerance and the characteristics of the end customer, respecting the sustainability criteria."

The full survey report is available here: objectway.com/insights/