The greenwashing scandal surrounding Deutsche Bank’s fund company, DWS, is a warning signal for the asset manager industry. Being accused of classifying investment products as greener or more sustainable than they actually are can not only lead to investigations by the public prosecutor’s office and supervisors on suspicion of capital investment fraud, as in the case of DWS, but is also associated with enormous reputational damage. Nordea Asset Management (AM), the capital investment company of the large Scandinavian bank, is aware of this.
Since the late 1980s, asset managers have been dealing with capital investments that are geared towards the environment, social development and good corporate governance. The abbreviation ESG has prevailed on the capital market after the English terms environment, social and governance. For the asset managers at Nordea, the three terms are closely linked. For them, sustainability without social goals and respect for human rights is unthinkable.