Oxford Risk Sustainable Investing and ESG Consultancy Projects

Oxford Risk is proud to be leading the way in the field of data and analysis to support and understand investor behaviour and preferences around sustainable investing and ESG.

As part of an investor suitability process, emotions and other behavioural factors are far too often overlooked. The question of sustainability/ESG needs to be addressed more deeply when delivering wealth advice and recommendations as the European MiFID II regulation already states, and the FCA’s upcoming Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) outlines.

Given that appetite for ESG assets is growing, particularly among younger investors, it’s not only vital but now legally required, that wealth managers work with their clients to elicit sustainability preferences. And Oxford Risk’s data clearly suggest that ethical considerations can drive sudden financial decisions; this possibility is ever more acute given the current storm of geopolitical uncertainty and ecological fears. Only a behavioural approach to suitability and sustainability preferences can provide the deepest and most robust understanding of an investor to better support personalised communications, engaging them in the right ways to meet their long-term investment objectives.

Taking a deeper dive into investor attitudes towards sustainable investing and ESG, in 2019 Oxford Risk collaborated with Newton Investment Management on a report analysing how a better understanding of investors' sustainable-investing goals could drive improved uptake of sustainable-investing solutions. Oxford Risk’s Head of Behavioural Finance, Dr Greg Davies spoke with Julian Lyne of Newton Asset Management about this report. A follow-up study investigating these ideas further was published in 2020 (video summary here).

In 2020 and 2021, Oxford Risk also worked with Standard Chartered Bank to deliver their annual Sustainable Investing Report. The 2020 Standard Chartered Sustainable Investing Review focussed on the current state of play within the market and how it can be improved. An additional update to this was published by Standard Chartered and Oxford Risk in 2021.

In combination with partners, Tumelo, Oxford Risk have also released a joint webinar on driving investor engagement for better outcomes around sustainability and ESG. This webinar looks at how the industry can better understand, empower, and engage investors by activating their shareholders’ voices whilst more accurately assessing preferences for sustainability and ESG.

Finally, as latent client demand increases for sustainable investing solutions, the behavioural finance team at Oxford Risk have created a guide to support wealth managers in meeting MiFID regulation and positioning themselves optimally for upcoming FCA SDR regulation.

To find out more about Oxford Risk’s expert insight through consultancy, research, and public speaking availability, please click here.