Social investment funds growth presents 'great opportunity'

The opportunity for socially responsible investment is "significant" in the opinion of one shares expert.

Writing for financial advice website Citywire, Tatjana Greil-Castro quoted figures from the Investment Management Association that showed the value of sales of ethical funds in the third quarter of this year increased by 25 per cent from the same period last year to £74 million.

Until recently, she continued, ethical fixed income investing had been restricted to community-based lending, micro-finance and low-yield government funds, but this situation is changing.

The increase in the number of fixed income ethical portfolios on offer including corporate credit and public infrastructure projects means financiers will be in a better position to leverage the social responsibility of the organisations to which they lend, the expert explained.

Importantly, Ms Greil-Castro argued, investors should continually monitor the environmental, social and government practices of companies they are thinking of working with, as set out in the United Nations Global Compacts Principles.

"There are plenty of opportunities to apply ethical standards successfully to the fixed-income arena," she added. ADNFCR-2318-ID-800265423-ADNFCR