Guide The Promotion of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) by Financial Institutions Best practices in France and Abroad November 2009 Observatoire sur la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises 7 impasse Léger 75017 Paris - France • Tel. +33 1 56 79 35 00 • Fax +33 1 56 79 35 03 Email :
[email protected] • Website : www.orse.org The Promotion of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) by Financial Institution Best practices in France and Abroad 1 Guide to the Promotion of SRI by Financial institutions Scope: The aim of this guide is: • to carry out a review of practices used to promote SRI in its strictest sense.As such, it does not deal with aspects related to the funding of the social economy (shared return funds, microfinance, micro-insurance and so on), • to produce a support document based on examples identified both in France, from among ORSE members and the AFG (the French Asset Management Association), and abroad thanks to the cooperation of the SIF (French Sustainable Investment Forum), • to list the main questions that finance professionals (banks, management firms, insurance companies) need to ask themselves when designing and marketing an SRI product. This guide is above all designed to be practical. It is mainly intended to raise awareness among the different players in the SRI chain within the financial institutions, i.e. managers, sales and marketing departments, distribution net- works and their partners. The basis of research: As is its usual practice, the ORSE proceeded as follows: • identification of the most advanced companies, • analysis of SRI offers and communication methods used by financial institutions (brochures, newsletters, questionnaires, websites, etc.), • consultation with CSR teams and SRI fund managers at the AFG, • consultation with the SIF to identify best practices abroad, • inclusion of research carried out by Novethic,Altédia IC and other stake-holders, • presentation of a summary document submitted to all members of the ORSE’s Finance Club, for validation.